Bremer’s winner for Wolfsburg Women ends European dream for brave Arsenal

On the exterior of the redecorated Emirates Stadium, Arsenal’s quadruple-winning women’s team of 2006-07 heave on red ropes, pulling up the former UWCL trophy. A trophy no other English team has won. That achievement is given equal billing opposite the men’s “Invincibles” team who are similarly raising high a gold Premier League trophy.

Inside the stadium, the depleted Gunners battled valiantly but could not pull themselves into their second Champions League final, losing 3-2 against the two-time European champions Wolfsburg, with the winner coming deep into extra-time.

There was no Beth Mead, no Vivianne Miedema, no Kim Little, no Caitlin Foord and no Leah Williamson and, ultimately, there wasn’t enough in the absolutely outstanding legs that remained, legs that gave everything for a record crowd of 60,063.

There were no changes to the starting XI that came from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw in Germany, in part because the coach Jonas Eidevall’s options are extremely limited. Only Lina Hurtig was deemed ready to return to the bench, with Foord still “a little bit away from playing” according to Eidevall.

Wolfsburg welcomed back the captain, Alex Popp, who was kept out of the first leg with a calf injury, in place of Jule Brand but were also otherwise unchanged. The player of the match in the first leg, Jen Beattie, and Popp both started in the first meeting between Arsenal and Wolfsburg in 2013, a 2-0 defeat for the Gunners in front of 1,397 fans at Borehamwood.

It was almost the worst possible start for the hosts in a heaving stadium. Just three minutes in, the game was paused while VAR looked at a possible handball by Lotte Wubben-Moy. Fortunately for the England centre-back the player she was grappling with,