Key events
39 mins: Arsenal have the ball for a while, but when eventually Foord is played through on the right she is offside.
37 mins: The corner is cleared to Schertenleib, who takes a fine shot from a good 30 yards that dips onto the roof of the net.
36 mins: Barcelona win their eighth corner of the game. Arsenal are yet to have one.
34 mins: And another miss! Graham Hansen crosses again from the right, but it bounces just before it reaches Patri Guijarro and arrives at an awkward height, and she sidefoots wide!
31 mins: How is this not going in??!?! Schertenleib’s long-range piledriver is saved by Misa Rodriguez, but Graham Hansen claims the loose ball and returns it to Schertenleib, who tricks her way into space in the penalty area and sends in a shot that deflects off two players before rolling behind for a corner.
30 mins: An excellent pass over the Arsenal backline forces Hinds to concede a corner. And before that’s sent in, Suzanne Wrack has delivered another update:
WOW. The crowd here are stunned by that goal. The only noise is coming from the pocket of Arsenal fans behind the plexiglass in the upper tier, all 1,000 of them that have travelled despite the date change because of yesterday’s general strike. Barcelona have had the better chances but the Gunners lead. It was Russo that was the architect, her work on the left and then the cross caused big issues for the home team. She’s been in phenomenal form in recent weeks. What is frustrating about this Arsenal team is that the quality is there, when they want it to be.
28 mins: Arsenal have barely left their half since they scored, but neither have Barcelona carved them open in the way they were doing before Maanum got on the scoresheet.
25 mins: Barcelona spurn another chance, Irene Paredes getting a free header from a corner which she sends looping back across goal, but it dips the wrong side of the post!
23 mins: There were two lovely turns from Russo in the move that led to the goal, the second of them giving her space to send in a low cross from the left to Foord, who really should have scored at the near post. The ball hits Cata Coll in the Barcelona goal and rebounds to Frida Maanum, and she makes no mistake!
GOAL! Barcelona 0-1 Arsenal (Maanum, 22 mins)
Chance after Barcelona chance, and at the end of it Arsenal take the lead!
20 mins: Nothing comes of the free-kick, but moments later Graham Hansen crosses from the right and Pajor somehow fails to get a head to it in the middle.
19 mins: Lovely skill from Schertenleib to lift the ball over Stanway, and though the Arsenal player gets back to hook her foot around Schertenleib and get the ball, the referee decides it was a foul.
18 mins: Barcelona want a handball award against Kim Little, who got something on a bouncing ball on the edge of the area, but the referee doesn’t see it and VAR have clearly decided that it was either outside the box or not a handball at all.
16 mins: It is extraordinary, given how many players are in defensive positions when they have possession, how easily Barcelona are managing to find space, and lots of it.
13 mins: More chances for Barcelona! The ball is pulled back to Esmee Brugts, whose first-time shot hits Emily Fox, standing next to her goalkeeper a couple of yards off the goalline, but the ball rebounds back to Brugts and this time Misa Rodriguez makes the save!
12 mins: That was extremely ropey defending, and Arsenal are very lucky not to be trailing. Arsenal have settled now into a low block, all 11 players within 40 yards of their own goal.
10 mins: And another one! This time Graham Hansen spots the run of Sydney Schertenleib and absolutely nobody tracks her, leaving her with only Misa Rodriguez to beat, but she thwacks her shot into the keeper’s face!
7 mins: Save! Graham Hansen takes on Taylor Hinds, jinks into space and shoots from the corner of the six-yard box towards the near post, but Misa Rodriguez turns it behind!
5 mins: A better little period for the visitors ends in a brilliant chance and a terrible miss from Alessia Russo! A simple ball over the full-back sends Foord sprinting down the right and into the penalty area, but her shot is saved and a second effort deflects up to Russo at the far post, but she heads wide of a gaping net! She was also probably offside, mind.
2 mins: They kept the ball for about 15 seconds and haven’t seen it since. Eventually Caroline Graham Hansen plays a pass infield from the right and Ewa Pajor is so close to getting sent through on goal. Instead it runs through to Misa Rodriguez.
1 min: Peeeeeep! Arsenal kick off!
Anthems played, hands shaken, coin tossed (an Arsenal victory!), huddles huddled. Football even more imminent!
The players are on the pitch! And it looks like a very decent crowd has gathered in a massive stadium to watch them. Football imminent!
If anyone of an Arsenal leaning wants a reminder of good times and inspiration as they look to return to them, here’s Suzanne’s report on the 2025 Champions League final between these two sides:
Renée Slegers has a bit of a chat about the game, and about how injuries are impacting Arsenal’s squad:
We have an incredible squad, we have a lot of depth in the squad. It’s always going to happen that you have absences. Of course we’re missing those players but we always have players who can step up. We need everyone, so the squad is ready for tonight.
Suzanne Wrack is on the ground in Catalonia, and has sent in this missive from Camp Nou:
It’s a maze around the Camp Nou building site, and finding the media entrance involved a lot of confused stewards and different directions. We’re in though, and what a stadium it’s going to be when the work is done. It’s really hard to know how Arsenal will fare here. They could snatch a cheeky 1-0 win or lose by five, and neither would be that much of a surprise. It’s great to see Frida Maanum in the 10 and Alessia Russo in the centre-forward position. Russo’s been on fire playing in either role but sometimes any change, whether it impacts or not, can act as a spark for a struggling team.
Arsenal’s women are playing at Camp Nou for the first time, where they will find their dressing-room contains one thing their opponents’ does not …
… corners.
The teams!
Team news is in, and the lineups are as follows:
Barcelona Women: Coll, Camara, Paredes, Van Asten, Brugts, Serrajordi, Guijarro, Schertenleib, Hansen, Pajor, Pina. Subs: Font, McCamey, Torrejon, Bonmati, Julia, Fernandez, Torres, Dominguez, Jimenez.
Arsenal Women: Misa, Fox, Williamson, Catley, Hinds, Stanway, Little, Baum, Maanum, Foord, Russo. Subs: Borbe, Damm, Wubben-Moy, de Almeida, Smith, Reuteler, Batlle, Holmberg, Cooney-Cross, Dixon.
Referee: Ivana Martincic (Croatia)
VAR: Fran Jovic (Croatia).
Preamble
Hello world! And don’t worry Arsenal, it’s only Barcelona away! Sure, they’ve won the Champions League in three of the last four seasons, and only missed one final since 2018, and they’re averaging 6.34 goals a game in Europe this season and 4.62 in all competitions, but it’s not like they’re perfect: they lost 2-1 at Real Sociedad just a few weeks ago. And yes, it’s true that they have lost no other games in the last year – that’s a run of one defeat in 53 – and even including that hiccup the aggregate scoreline of their last seven games is 34-3 (Arsenal’s is about-as-third-as-many-scored to about-three-times-as-many-conceded at 13-10), but they are demonstrably and recently beatable. Hold on to that. And also the fact that the Gunners have beaten Barcelona on three of the five occasions they have met in the Champions League, most recently in the 2025 final. And, for as long as possible, hold on to that clean sheet.
“We play against a fantastic team with some very good players. They play very well and have a very clear game model. It’s a difficult match, and we’ll approach it knowing we’re facing a great team and that we’ll have to do things very well,” is very much what Arsenal coach Renée Slegers might have said ahead of this match, but is actually what an extremely generous Pere Romeu, her Barcelona counterpart, had to say of the side currently sitting sixth in the WSL having won three of their nine league games so far this season (Barca meanwhile have won nine out of 10).
“We know how good they are on the ball. We know that we have to be comfortable without the ball as well,” said Slegers. “We will have to suffer. We’ll have to put bodies on the lines. We’ll have to be really disciplined.” It might just be one of those games.
