DÉJÀ VU – Arsenal v Lyon

Current Champions League holders, Arsenal are meeting OL Lyonnes for the fourth (and fifth) time in just 12 months. And this time it’s in a two-legged semi-final once again.

Helen M Jerome hears what both teams have to say. Sofie Svava has experience from last year with Lyon, and we also get the thoughts of the matchwinner from last year’s final, Stina Blackstenius, along with Arsenal head coach, Renée Slegers.

Lyon are still smarting from last season’s defeat, but with new players in their squad, plus a new head coach in the shape of serial winner – with Barcelona – Jonatan Giráldez, they are in no mood to let it slip away again.

They beat Arsenal 2-1 at Meadow Park in their very first match of this Champions League campaign, when Melchie Dumornay was electric and unplayable (again), so they know it’s achievable.

Arsenal already have the inaugural Champions Cup under their belts in 2026, and are also going for a European spot by finishing in the top three in the WSL this season. But for now the focus is very much on booking a spot in Oslo for the Champions League final.

They in turn have the grit and resilience along with the quality and flair to carry them over the line. So something’s got to give.

Demanding

Danish international Sofie Svava (below) has previously played in the Champions League with both Wolfsburg and Real Madrid, and having joined Lyon in 2024, she has continued to witness the highs and lows and intense pressure of European club football first hand.

Last year’s defeat by Arsenal in the second leg still smarts. But Svava says they have been working together in training for this big game. “So if we do as we’re told, then I think it would be a great outcome… if we’re together, have the best game of our life, then I think we’ll all be great.”

She says it’s hard to compare to last season, because they now have a lot of new players in from the beginning of the season. With almost the whole squad comprising national team players, and a very good bench, and a very good starting 11. Which is somewhat of an understatement.

The other major difference is the new head coach, Jonatan Giráldez, who Svava says is trying to put his mentality into the team, with possession and quickly getting the ball back.  

“Now we’ve been working almost a year with him, I feel we are developing in the right way, so it’s positive. He has very high demands of us, so it’s great.”

Revenge

Without dwelling on last year’s semi-finals too much, you still sense how much the encounter has haunted this Lyon team. Svava freely admits that it was a bruising experience. “Last year was definitely tough on all of us. We were very disappointed in ourselves.”

Could it be that revenge is a dish best served cold… one year on?

“Of course, there is this revenge feeling, for sure,” says Svava. “We want to get out there and finish what we didn’t finish last season, so even if we get a good result, then we also have to be 100% the next game, because of what happened last season.”

The other thing that Lyon boast, much like Barça under Giraldez, is the hunger to win. “We want to win everything here,” says Svava. “That’s just the mentality here in this club, and you can really feel that on the girls here on the team who have won a lot of Champions League trophies.

“We have to win, and if we score two goals, we have to keep on going, score the third goal. So that mentality is just very different from what else I’ve been at, the winner mentality.”

Aware that they won 2-1 away at the Emirates last season, only to lose 1-4 in the home leg one week later, Svava acknowledges the pressure. “Because of last year, there is, of course, a big pressure. We want to do better than we did last year. It’s not a bad pressure, it’s a good pressure.”

Inspiring

Stina Blackstenius (below) has become something of a talismanic, cult figure for Arsenal over the years, scoring crucial winners in pressure situations. And none was more crucial than her Champions League final winner, coming off the bench with Beth Mead, who provided the assist, and getting the Gunners over the line against Barcelona in Lisbon last summer.

Blackstenius talks of feeling like home at Arsenal now, and evolving her role alongside Alessia Russo, who she calls “inspiring” to play alongside, stretching the line. She says her personal highlights reel would also be filled with lots of good memories from playing for Sweden – who she recently captained – to smaller moments of joy, and feeling that she’s in a good place with good people right now. “But,” she tells me, “it’s hard not to mention winning the Champions League!”

Haunted

When I talk to Renée Slegers about Lyon’s hunger for revenge and the feeling that they are still haunted by last season’s semi-final, she is pragmatic about Arsenal’s own response.

“I think they are in their camp,” says Slegers, “and they’re trying to find the right way to attack this game. It’s going to be a high-level game with two teams finding their way.”

Slegers leans into this attitude. “That’s what we’re going to do, and I think what we are good at is just one moment at a time. And this moment is right now and we’re going to try to impact that as well as we can and prepare really well for this moment.”

For Arsenal, she says, it’s all about their own approach. “We go into a game with a lot of belief and a lot of tools and that’s what we’re focusing on.”

But Blackstenius and Slegers are only too aware of the magnitude of the occasion and how keenly Lyon will want to get revenge. “Yeah, I don’t know what’s going through their heads,” says Slegers, “but I’m sure that both teams are going to be very much up for it, and wanting a spot in the final…”

Arsenal host OL Lyonnes on Sunday 26 April at 15:30 BST (16:30 CET) in the Champions League semi-final first leg (the second leg is on Saturday 2 May). For information on where to watch the UWCL in your area, please visit: https://wheretowatch.uefa.com/

Photos: UEFA, Helen M Jerome