Stina Blackstenius: Arsenal forward on Women's Champions League semi-final, Alessia Russo and signing a new contract
Stina Blackstenius signed a new deal at Arsenal this week; she has played well alongside Alessia Russo this season; Arsenal play OL Lyonnes in their Women's Champions League semi-final first leg on Sunday at the Emirates
Friday 24 April 2026 17:33, UK
There's a sense of deja vu at Arsenal right now. Not only are both senior squads in the Champions League semi-finals, the women's team face OL Lyonnes in the final four for a second successive year.
The Gunners are aiming for back-to-back titles are beating Barcelona in Lisbon last year. The winning goalscorer? Stina Blackstenius.
The forward has a knack for scoring big goals in big moments. She has won all four finals she has competed in as an Arsenal player, scoring in three of them.
"I really love to win with this team. I would do anything for that to happen," she exclusively told Sky Sports ahead of Sunday's semi-final first leg at the Emirates.
"As a striker, you always want to score goals and in these big games, there's something special about it."
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With a fantastic home record under Renee Slegers, Arsenal have real belief heading into the game despite losing the first leg last year before coming from behind to beat the eight-time European champions in France.
It was the story of Arsenal's winning campaign: the underdogs who don't know when they were beaten. This time around though, they are the targets.
"I wouldn't say it's changed anything [being the Champions League holders]," she said. "We know that we can achieve it and if we've done it once, we can for sure do it again.
"That is the confidence we have in this team, but I don't feel that we play with more pressure now than last season.
"We still try to work really hard to achieve this. We know that we want to play in the final and that's the only goal we have.
"We have grown so much from what we achieved last season. We didn't always get the best result last year, we came back against Real Madrid and OL Lyonnes away as well, so that gave us a lot of confidence.
"When we play our best football, we're always a team to count on."
Blackstenius-Russo partnership blossoming
Blackstenius' Arsenal team-mate Alessia Russo is this season's Champions League's top scorer with eight goals in 10 matches.
The pair have dovetailed beautifully for the Gunners this season, arguably playing some of the best football of their careers thanks in part to the work they have put in with assistant coach and legendary former striker Kelly Smith.
"She [Smith] has played a big part of it working with us forwards. We have so much time in training to work on the relationships and it works really well.
"We are different players, and we can give the team different things. That's the quality we have in this team and that's what makes us really good as well because we all give something different, which can be good against different teams.
"Alessia and I complement each other. I've always been a player that wants to run deep and try to stretch the line, make the runs in the box to create space for myself and for everyone around me. I see that as my role, and I'm more than happy with that.
"Alessia has so many qualities in the way she plays as well, she's really good with the ball, really good with setting up players in good situations, so we can really help each other in that way and make it as hard as possible for the defensive line.
"I enjoy playing with her very much and want to see if we can keep improving even more."
In fact, their differences are one of the reasons why Arsenal wanted Blackstenius to sign a new contract, announced earlier this week. More options is only a positive for the Gunners.
"It's a really special club in so many ways," she said. "Since I joined four and a half years ago, so much has happened
"It's such a fun league to play in and with the supporters we have, it's such a good group of girls, good staff and everything around this environment feels like home.
"We also want to go for silverware and compete in every competition we're in. I feel like we keep growing and that's a big part as well, that you can see where it's about to go."
In the more immediate future, Arsenal could be going to Oslo, where the Champions League final will be played on May 23. Don't be surprised if Blackstenius has a big hand in the Gunners getting there either.
