Arsenal and Barcelona meet in the 2025 UEFA Women's Champions League final on Saturday 24 May at the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon .
Arsenal vs Barcelona at a glance
When: Saturday 24 May (18:00 CET kick-off, 17:00 local time)
Where: Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon
What: UEFA Women's Champions League final
How to follow: Build-up can be found here
What do you need to know?
Barcelona are playing their 100th European match and, by coincidence, their first two came against Arsenal in the 2012/13 round of 32. The Gunners won 3-0 away, before a 4-0 home success a week later, and although Arsenal's Kim Little and Barcelona's Alexia Putellas both featured then, as they should do in Lisbon, much has changed in the interim.
Arsenal were already five years on from their 2006/07 UEFA Women's Cup triumph, and only now have they reached their long-awaited second final after many seasons of near misses and some even outside European competition.
However, the Gunners are now back on the biggest stage, in a campaign in which they have overturned first-leg deficits in three different ties: against Häcken in round 2, from 2-0 down against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals and, perhaps most stunningly of all, away against Lyon in the last four.
The north London side have been resurgent ever since Renée Slegers took charge ahead of Matchday 2, with their midfield bolstered this season by a player who featured in all of Barcelona's previous five finals – Mariona Caldentey, voted player of the season in the English Women's Super League.
All Arsenal's 2024/25 Women's Champions League goals
Barcelona, meanwhile, have risen from that humbling European bow to become the competition's prime force. They are featuring in their sixth final and seven years, and a record-equalling fifth in a row.
Having clinched their first title thanks to a 4-0 success against Arsenal's London rivals Chelsea in 2021, Barça won subsequent finals against Wolfsburg in 2023 and Lyon in 2024, and they now hope to become only the second club after the French giants to lift the trophy for three consecutive years.
Since a 2-0 Matchday 1 loss at Manchester City, Barcelona have won nine straight Champions League games, including 4-1 home and away semi-final successes against Chelsea. Their 44-goal tally is only one off the single-season record of 45 set by Wolfsburg in 2013/14, when they coincidentally struck four in the previous Lisbon final.
Fresh from sealing a tenth Liga F title, and sixth in a row, Barcelona are also close to full strength, albeit Kika Nazareth is a long-term absentee. Arsenal, meanwhile, will hope to have goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar is fit, though Manuela Zinsberger is an experienced alternative.
Where to watch
Matches in this season's UEFA Women's Champions League are being broadcast live and free on streaming platform DAZN throughout the world, with the exception of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) – where rights sit with beIN MENA – and China and its territories.
Selected matches are also streamed free on DAZN's YouTube channel. The YouTube stream will be embedded in the UEFA.com MatchCentres and on UEFA.tv for selected UEFA Women's Champions League games, with highlights to follow at midnight CET.
Form guide
Arsenal
Last six games: WLLWLW
Last match: Arsenal 4-3 Manchester United, 10/05, Women's Super League
Where they finished: 2nd in Women's Super League, Women's FA Cup quarter-finals, Women's League Cup semi-finals
Barcelona
Last six games: WWWWWW
Last match: Barcelona 6-0 Athletic Club, 18/05, Liga F
Where they finished: 1st in Liga F, Copa de la Reina final (vs Atlético de Madrid on 7 June)
All Barcelona's 2024/25 Women's Champions League goals
Possible starting line-ups
Arsenal: Zinsberger; Fox, Williamson, Catley, McCabe; Little, Mariona; Kelly, Maanum, Foord; Russo
Barcelona: Cata Coll; Batlle, Paredes, Mapi León, Rolfö; Aitana, Patri, Alexia; Graham Hansen, Pajor, Pina
Who are the Women's Champions League final refereeing team?
Referee: Ivana Martinčić (Croatia)
Assistants: Sanja Rođak-Karšić & Maja Petravić (Croatia)
Fourth Official: Ivana Projkovska (North Macedonia)
Reserve AR: Staša Špur (Slovenia)
VAR: Tiago Bruno Lopes Martins (Portugal)
Assistant VAR: Momčilo Marković (Serbia)
VAR Support: Alen Borošak (Slovenia)
Leah Williamson: 'We are very self-aware'
View from the camps
Renée Slegers, Arsenal coach: "We respect them highly as a team. They're very intelligent players, all of them, and technically capable, so it's going to be a new challenge. I think that it's a challenge that we haven't faced yet in the league or in the Champions League.
"We're going to try to replicate as many moments as possible in training and in meetings and prepare the players for everything that's going to come. But even the pressure and the day of the final and all the aspects of it, we're going to try and prepare for. But I think when the moment is there, it's going to be so special."
Pere Romeu, Barcelona coach: "When I enjoy [being a coach] the most is when I sit in my office and watch [the next opponents], watch a lot of Arsenal games, see what Arsenal do, see who their most important players are, how we are going to prepare for it, how we are going to train, what we propose... When we do all this is when I feel more calm, more confident and more convinced. From this moment on, when the game is getting closer, that's when you start to get nervous.
"It makes me feel especially excited that my family is coming, that my siblings are coming, that my best friends are coming to see the final there live. But I'm a down-to-earth guy, I'm a pretty calm guy, and I'm going to enjoy it. I'm going to love it with these people, but it doesn't put any extra pressure on me; it doesn't make me feel any more nervous. It feels natural to me."
Katie McCabe, Arsenal defender: "They've got so much quality. They're so good with the ball – intricate passes, movement, they're fluid in their positioning. They've won it, they have the experience of that, so we have to respect that.
"We have to respect their qualities and their strengths, but also we need to understand what we have as well and how good we can be going forward, how we control the tempo of games and our quality on the ball as well. For the neutral, I think it will be a really enjoyable spectacle, but I'm just so excited to hopefully walk out in front of a packed stadium and the Arsenal end cheering us on."
Ewa Pajor, Barcelona forward: "It's my dream to win this trophy, to win this trophy with this team, but we have to be calm, not obsessive about this trophy. It's our goal as a team. We have to be prepared, to be focused and I hope we win this trophy like a team, because we have amazing, amazing players, amazing coaches and, yes, we can do it."
Ewa Pajor on 'big player' Robert Lewandowski
Where is the 2025 UEFA Women's Champions League final being played?
Getty Images
Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon will stage the 2025 UEFA Women's Champions League final.
The home of Sporting CP opened in 2003 ahead of UEFA EURO 2004 in Portugal, replacing another stadium of the same name. It hosted a semi-final of that tournament, among other games, and was the venue for the UEFA Cup decider the following year.
The 2025 final will be the second Women's Champions League showpiece to be held in Lisbon after 2014, when Estádio do Restelo staged Wolfsburg's 4-3 win against Tyresö.