There is a sense of déjà vu at Arsenal right now. Not only have both senior teams reached the Champions League semi-finals, but the women’s team will face OL Lyonne in the Final Four for the second year in a row.
The Gunners defeated Barcelona in Lisbon last year and are aiming for a back-to-back title. Who was the winning goal scorer? Stina Blackstenius.
The forward has the talent to score big goals at important moments. She has won all four finals she has appeared in as an Arsenal player, scoring in three of them.
“I really love winning with this team and I’ll do anything for that,” she exclusively told Sky Sports ahead of Sunday’s semi-final first leg at the Emirates.
“As a striker you always want to score goals, but in big games like this there’s something special about it.”
Arsenal, who have had an excellent home run under manager Renee Sleggers, are going into the game with great belief despite losing the first leg last year and coming from behind to beat the eight-time European champions in France.
It was a story of Arsenal’s winning campaign, of underdogs who never knew when they had lost. But this time they are the target.
“I can’t say anything has changed (as Champions League holders),” she said. “We know we can achieve it, and if we can do it once, we can definitely do it again.
“That’s the confidence we have in this team, but I don’t feel like we’re playing with more pressure right now than we did last season.
“We are still working hard to achieve this. We know we want to play in the final and that is our only goal.
“We have improved a lot since last season. We didn’t necessarily have the best results last year, but we came back against Real Madrid and away against OL Lyon, so that gave us a lot of confidence.”
Stina Blackstenius scored the winning goal as Arsenal defeated Barcelona 1-0 in last season’s Champions League final.
“We are always a team you can rely on when we play our best football.”
Black Stenius and Russo partnership blossoms
Braxstenius’ Arsenal teammate Alessia Russo is this season’s top scorer in the Champions League with eight goals in 10 games.
The pair have fitted in superbly for the Gunners this season and are playing arguably the best football of their careers, thanks to the hard work of assistant coach and legendary former striker Kelly Smith.
“She (Smith) has played a big role in working with our forwards. We spend a lot of time in training building relationships and it’s working really well.”
“We’re all different players and we can give different things to the team. That’s the quality this team has and that’s what makes us really good, because we all give different things and that can have a positive impact against different teams.”
“Alessia and I complement each other. I’ve always been a player who wants to run deep, stretch his lines and make runs in the box to create space for me and everyone around me. I think that’s my role and I’m happy with that.”
“Alessia has so many qualities in the way she plays as well. She’s very good with the ball and really good at setting up players in good situations, so we can really help each other that way and make the defensive line as hard as possible.”
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Women’s Super League highlights of Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur
“It’s been a lot of fun playing with her and I’m looking forward to seeing if she can continue to develop.”
In fact, the differences between the two players were one of the reasons why Arsenal wanted to sign Blackstenius to a new deal, which was announced earlier this week. Having more options is only a plus for the Gunners.
“It’s a really special club in many ways,” she said. “A lot has happened since I joined the company four and a half years ago.
Wednesday, April 29th 6:30pm
7pm kickoff
“This league is so much fun to play with the supporters, we have a really good group of girls, we have good staff and everything about this environment feels like home.
“We also want to compete for silverware in every competition we’re in. We feel like we’re continuing to grow, and that’s a big part of seeing where it goes as well.”
In the nearer future, Arsenal could be heading to Oslo for the Champions League final on May 23rd. I wouldn’t be surprised if Blackstenius played a big part in the Gunners getting there.
