How Arsenal became European champions for a second time: Pressing, doubling up and smart subs

New York Times

26-05-2025

Underdog victories in major finals aren't usually achieved so convincingly.
Arsenal were rank outsiders going into the Champions League final against Barcelona on Saturday, with odds of up to 14/1 for them to win the game in 90 minutes. Player for player, Arsenal might only get a couple of names into the starting XI of Barcelona, the dominant side in this competition in recent years. But collectively, Arsenal were unquestionably superior, recording an unlikely but thoroughly deserved victory.
Advertisement
This Arsenal side is comprised almost solely of highly technical players. Centre-backs Steph Catley and Leah Williamson are a former left-back and a former midfielder respectively. Central midfielders Kim Little and Mariona Caldentey are No 10s at heart. Renee Slegers has eschewed old-school centre-backs and functional holding midfielders, and stuck to her Plan A despite knowing Arsenal would spend long periods without the ball. It worked brilliantly.
Arsenal's system was 4-4-2 without possession. The defensive line was high, keeping the shape compact, and Alessia Russo and Frida Maanum worked together to shut down Barcelona's build-up play.
While Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmati receive the most praise, the Barcelona player that requires special attention is right winger Caroline Graham Hansen, whose dribbling can destroy opponents. But Arsenal were incredibly diligent at getting various players around her.
Here, Caitlin Foord drops back to help out Katie McCabe, and Graham Hansen is dispossessed when she tries to go past them.
Here's a similar situation, although this time it's central midfielder Little who goes out to confront Graham Hansen, with Caldentey her closest support.
It doesn't make sense, on paper, for Arsenal's midfield duo to both find themselves in the left-back zone — and the edge of the box is completely empty. But that showed Arsenal's determination to shut down Barca's most dangerous player.
In other situations, too, Arsenal's wingers worked incredibly hard.
Here's a classic Barcelona move, with Mapi Leon releasing Fridolina Rolfo on the overlap, after Arsenal right-back Emily Fox has got sucked into tracking Claudia Pina dropping deep. Rolfo is well in advance of Foord, briefly playing on the right, and is one of the quickest players on the pitch.
But Foord made up an incredible amount of ground to produce a brilliant tackle, which she celebrated like a goal.
Here's an example from the second half. Substitute Salma Paralluelo is down the left, and Barca are building an attack. Chloe Kelly, on the halfway line here, isn't in a great position to help stop her.
But Kelly makes a 30-yard recovery run to tackle Paralluelo, who seemed surprised to see Kelly was even there. Also highlighted is Putellas on the ground — Kelly had also blocked off her run.
Arsenal needed to be brave with their pressing — that's what brought their memorable 4-1 victory at Lyon, and it's the only way to seriously cause Barcelona problems.
They did that well throughout the game, working in pairs to win possession high up the pitch. Here, Pina thinks she's free for a pass from Rolfo. But both Maanum and Little are closing down from either side.
Pina only spots Little, to the right. She turns left, and runs into Maanum, who makes the tackle.
Then Little picks up the loose ball, and Arsenal are on the attack.
Here's a similar situation. Goalkeeper Cata Coll plays the ball into Putellas, who doesn't know Kelly is behind her and about to shut her down.
Kelly makes the tackle, and two Arsenal players are on hand to take charge.
Really, Caldentey didn't make the most of this situation.
Arsenal's only problem was playing Russo in behind. This early ball in behind from Kelly was the right idea, but Leon stepped up at the right time to play her offside (as she did for Arsenal's disallowed goal, incidentally).
The next time Arsenal were in a similar situation, Russo went too early, was in an offside position, so had to halt her run.
Then it was Foord who made the run in behind instead…
…but Coll swept well, and Foord was flagged offside anyway.
This became a particular problem for Arsenal at the start of the second half, when Barcelona were starting to build pressure and Arsenal kept giving the ball away.
Here, Williamson tries to play Russo in behind. But she's not quite on the shoulder of the last defender, and is always second-favourite.
Leon is in control, and gets to the ball first.
This ball from Williamson, aimed towards Russo, was also a good example of how Arsenal weren't getting it right.
Was it a cross or a through-ball? Neither was likely to be effective, with Irene Paredes blocking Russo's run.
But Slegers had a plan. Stina Blackstenius — who Slegers played alongside in their days at Linkoping in Sweden — is often criticised for inconsistent finishing, but few players are better at making runs in behind the defence. And when Maanum went down injured, it was the perfect opportunity to introduce Blackstenius, stretching the Barcelona defence.
Shortly after coming on, and thanks to a misplaced pass from Rolfo, Blackstenius had the game's clearest chance so far. Note the position of fellow substitute Beth Mead, also bounding in behind, and also of Russo, now asked to play deeper, almost as an extra midfielder.
At this point, the pass to Mead on the outside was possibly on…
…but Blackstenius had a decent crack at goal herself, placing it too close to Coll.
But Blackstenius' introduction clearly changed the game.
Here, Fox curls a long ball in behind the defence. Compared to the aforementioned Williamson pass to Russo, Blackstenius is on the last line of defence. She's also up against Paredes, who sometimes lacks speed.
The centre-back just about reaches the ball first, but can only put it behind for a corner.
And Blackstenius winning that corner led to Blackstenius winning the game.
In the second phase of the set piece, the other substitute, Mead, turned onto her left foot and, spotting Blackstenius was free thanks to Paralluelo charging forward towards the ball, slipped her in.
Blackstenius, backing away from the defenders to find an extra half-yard of space, controlled the ball and swept it home.
One-nil to the Arsenal, as the song goes. It's difficult to think of a more comprehensive tactical performance in a European final — an underdog who didn't have to ride their luck, and who overcame more celebrated footballers courtesy of organisation, discipline and in-game management.
'It was the perfect execution of a game plan,' said Little. 'Which, as a footballer, is one of the best things.'