Mariona Caldentey, the creator of Sunday’s most magical moment in our 4-1 UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-final win away to Lyon, was beaming with pride after full-time at OL Stadium.
Our Spanish midfielder picked out the top right corner beautifully to give us a 2-0 lead on the brink of half-time and turn the tie on its head as we move ahead on aggregate, and said our advancement to May’s final against Barcelona in Lisbon is nothing more than we deserved.
“So happy, I think we deserved that,” she said after the game. “I think at home we had a good game, even though the score was not what we wanted, but today we smashed it and we scored all the goals we couldn't score at home, and we are in the final.”
Asked about how this team continually responds to setbacks so well, Mariona praised the mentality behind our comeback ability.
“Well, the thing I said to Renée, we cannot wait for the second game for the final because it's only one so hopefully we are better from the start,” she explained. “But I think what we are doing, it's not easy and it says a lot about the mentality of the team and what we want to do. So, I think it's amazing.”
Mariona also talked us through her magical moment, scoring our sensation second in France.
“Yeah, it was magic,” she agreed. “I normally don't shoot that much from out of the box, and today it worked, so everyone was so happy for me. So I was happy to help the team.”
The party continued deep into the night for the hundreds of Arsenal supporters in Lyon, and Mariona was delighted to help create yet another unforgettable moment for them.
“Yeah, the fans were amazing as always and now the only thing I can say to them is that we will see them in Lisbon and hopefully we can have something to celebrate together."
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.