Arsenal Became the First Team to Lift FIFA’s Women’s Champions Cup
It was a £1.7m record prize pot for a women's football tournament
Arsenal FC Women’s Team has went on to lift The first FIFA’s Women’s Champions Cup, The event drew together teams from six continents, with the Gunners qualifying through their Champions League success last summer.
In taking on South American heavyweights Corinthians 3-2 in an electric final, they also added another piece of silverware to their grand trophy cabinet. Goals from Olivia Smith and Lotte Wubben-Moy put Arsenal twice ahead against the Brazilian side, who pegged back on both occasions to force an additional 30 minutes. Caitlin Foord did a strike in the 104th minute, to seal the win and ensure Arsenal made a record.
The latest piece of silverware has secured Arsenal’s glorious reputation and positioned them as the only English team to capture European titles, first accomplished in 2007 in a treble-winning season. Arsenal have also taken a record 15 league titles, 14 FA Cups and seven League Cups. Arsenal’s participation in the Women’s Champions Cup came with them winning the UEFA Women’s Champions League for the second time last season, and then the champions from the other five continental confederations joined.
The first round saw Auckland United of New Zealand eliminated by Chinese side Wuhan Jiangda, which was then defeated by Moroccan club ASFAR in order to place in the semi-finals, which were held at Brentford on Wednesday.
Arsenal beat the African champions 6-0 on goals from Stina Blackstenius, Frida Maanum, Mariona Caldentey, Olivia Smith and a brace from Alessia Russo and Corinthians were in the final by beating the US side Gotham. However, NWSL would also have some consolation as they scored against ASFAR 4-0 to finish third by N5.
Slegers made six changes for that game, the selection of Sunday differed from the XI that defeated Chelsea in the Women’s Super League last weekend in just one aspect and that was the £1 million forward Olivia Smith being returned from suspension.
Overall supporters attended the four games, over 46,000 in total and 25,031 spectators for Arsenal as they watched in the final. That was 11,000 below the Gunners’ usual average attendance; but some of the oddity of a starting time of 18:00 can be reckoned with. That was also comfortably more than any other team has ever done this season, except Chelsea, who had 30,545 through the gates for the Arsenal game 10 days ago.
Corinthians, who burst into Emirates Stadium, roused enormous travelling support, adding to the Champions Cup final figure. The enthusiasm in Brazil for this tournament can be seen by the fact that the television figures were taken from Brazilian broadcast partner CazeTV showing over a million people tuning in to their live stream in South America at the same time the Corinthians’ men were playing Flamengo.
The allocation of the Women’s Champions Cup has certainly been to Arsenal’s benefit. First of all, They are in the middle of a domestic season, Slegers are as sharp as the knife we have in the field. Compare that with Corinthians, whose only game under attack since September was last Wednesday’s semi-final against Gotham.
The tournament took place in London, so Arsenal also had no travel logistics to navigate but can still employ training facilities in their own backyard and play the final in their own stadium as well.
