Soccer Football - Women's Champions League - Quarter Final - Second Leg - Arsenal v Real Madrid - Emirates Stadium, London, Britain - March 26, 2025 Arsenal's Alessia Russo in action with Real Madrid's Maria Mendez Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs
LONDON (Reuters) -Alessia Russo scored twice as Arsenal produced a thrilling comeback to beat Real Madrid 3-0 in the women's Champions League on Wednesday, overturning a two-goal first-leg deficit to reach the semi-finals with a 3-2 aggregate victory.
The Londoners struck three times in the first 15 minutes of the second half to book their place in the next round, where they will face a daunting challenge against eight-time champions Olympique Lyonnais, who beat Bayern Munich earlier on Wednesday.
"It was amazing. It still feels a bit surreal right now, I've not really let it sink in yet," Russo, named player of the match, told TNT Sports.
"We've had a lot of belief all week, we knew what we wanted to do and what we're capable of as a team, and we've done that tonight."
Russo opened the scoring a minute after the break when she tapped in a great cross from Chloe Kelly before Mariona Caldentey made it 2-0 three minutes later with a header off the Manchester City loanee's second assist.
Russo scored her second in the 59th minute, striking a brilliant half-volley into the top of the net to put Arsenal ahead in the tie, while the England international twice thought she had bagged a hat-trick but saw two efforts disallowed for offside.
The visitors went close to scoring late in the first half when Filippa Angeldahl drew a great save from Arsenal goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar, while Linda Caicedo nearly pushed the match to extra time with a stoppage-time effort that was again denied by Van Domselaar.
Real had held firm under pressure from Arsenal in the first half, as Caldentey and Caitlin Foord both squandered clear-headed chances, but they ultimately faltered, missing out on their first-ever European semi-final.
"We knew that we were doing well in the first half. We felt good as a team, we felt that we had momentum. We just wanted to be a little more patient in the final third as we knew that we needed to score," the 26-year-old Russo added.
"Chloe put in some great crosses that set up the first two goals, and we were just persistent. We probably should have had more, to be fair."
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico CityEditing by Toby Davis)
