Arsenal laid their Champions League credentials out on the crisp Emirates stadium pitch, a remarkable 3-0 victory ensuring their passage to the semi-finals.
This was arguably the Gunners’ finest performance of the season, Kim Little was metronomic, Leah Williamson elite, Mariona Caldentey hungry, Alessia Russo clinical and Chloe Kelly unplayable, as they utterly dominated from start to finish in front of a record quarter-final crowd of 22,517 fans.
They had been profligate in the first half, but it mattered little, three goals in a rampant 13 minutes, setting up a delicious semi-final against eight-time Champions League winners Lyon and the former Arsenal manager Joe Montemurro.
The vibe around the team had been positive. “We have belief that we can do it”, said Renée Slegers beforehand. Arsenal had been here before, overturning a 1-0 loss to Bayern Munich to reach the semi-finals last season, but the mountain was that bit bigger, Athenea del Castillo adding to Linda Caicedo’s strike in the 82nd minute of the first leg to heap pressure on the Emirates stadium showdown.
There could be no excuses on the carpet-like surface their game is built for, the torrential rain and torn-up pitch at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefáno providing some forgiving context to the 2-0 loss in Spain. This was at Arsenal’s home though, in front of more than 20,000 fans who anxiously urged their team forward again and again as they sought to reduce the deficit early on.
The home team were rampant, accruing more than 65% of possession in the first half and 26 touches in the opposition box to Madrid’s three. For all that dominance though, the final ball was poor, one shot on target a damning stat. Maëlle Lakrar did well to deny Alessia Russo after a wonderful flick from Katie McCabe was met by the England forward and an unmarked Mariona Caldentey sent a header off the bar from the resulting corner. Caitlin Foord struggled to connect cleanly with a Russo ball and landed heavily and cross after cross from Chloe Kelly was wasted.
In the 41st minute there was a huge let off for the Gunners, Daphne van Domselaar saved first from Filippa Angeldal, who shot from the edge of the box.
That was the final meaningful action of the first half and with time ticking away from the north London side hope started to seep from the crowd. Madrid were well organised, having made just one enforced change to the team that won in Spain, with Melanie Leupolz absent through injury, and confidence was high following a first-ever defeat of the La Liga champions Barcelona on Sunday. They absorbed the Arsenal pressure relatively comfortably.
There was no time to waste but the blueprint had been there in the first half. It took one minute for Arsenal to do what they hadn’t been able to do for 45 minutes: capitalise on Kelly’s crosses. Russo turned in from her England teammate straight after the restart and three minutes later the tie was levelled via the same source, this time Caldentey’s head was there to meet Kelly’s ball and direct it coolly past Misa Rodríguez.
Just before the hour mark and Arsenal had the lead in the tie for the first time when McCabe’s free-kick was nodded down by Steph Catley and swept in by Russo. The turnaround was remarkable and deserved and the Emirates crowd delighted in every touch, turn and pass.
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The Gunners didn’t take their foot off the gas after their 13-minute blitz and the Spanish side just couldn’t cope with the relentless pressure, Olga Carmona run ragged by the re-energised Kelly, who only joined Arsenal from Manchester City at the end of January.
The Gunners thought they had been rewarded for that work just past the 70 minute mark, when Russo slotted Frida Maanum’s ball in past Rodríguez, but after wildly celebrating her hat-trick it was revoked following a VAR check for the narrowest of offsides.
Beth Mead and Lia Walti replaced Kelly and Maanum as the clock ticked down, while an exhausted Carmona was taken off as one of three changes for Real a few minutes later.
Russo was denied her hat-trick a second time with two minutes remaining, adjudged offside again after slotting past the Spanish goalkeeper for a fourth time. Any frustration the forward may have felt was suitably muted by the win though, a win that was celebrated exuberantly and loudly, the fans more than filling the 60,000-seater stadium with noise. The semi final against Montemurro’s Lyon awaits, with the French giants having secured a 6-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich. Those fixtures will be played over the last two weekends in April.
