"No one thought that we'd be going to get our hands on that trophy." Alex Scott said it with a wistfulness that tells you she still can't quite believe it either — nearly two decades on from the night she scored the goal that made Arsenal the first English women's club to win the European Cup.
It was the 2006-07 UEFA Women's Cup final, first leg, in Sweden. Second-half stoppage time. Scott, a right back, picked up the ball 30 yards out, drove forward, and hit it — top corner, goalkeeper's fingertips, net. Arsenal had been a semi-professional outfit training a couple of times a week. Umeå had Marta, the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year. The second leg at home finished 0-0, and Arsenal were European champions.
Scott joined Arsenal's youth teams at eight years old and went on to make over 300 appearances for them across three spells. She won 22 trophies, earned 140 England caps — fifth on the all-time list — and was part of the squad that reached the country's first Women's World Cup semifinal in 2015. But the quadruple season of 2006-07 stands apart from everything else.
Stopping Marta — and a rivalry that never cooled
What people remember is the goal. What Scott remembers is the nights she spent awake before it, trying to figure out how to stop Marta. "How do you stop the best player in the world?" she asked herself. The answer, as it turned out: you just do. Scott shut her out across both legs.
Sitting on the Arsenal bench as assistant coach during that final was Emma Hayes, now head coach of the US women's national team. Scott credits Hayes with telling her she could become the best right back in the world — a belief that clearly stuck. Hayes later left Arsenal for Chelsea, won 16 trophies there, and in doing so ignited a London rivalry that has defined English women's football ever since.
The one trophy that eluded Hayes at Chelsea? The Champions League. The closest she came was the 2021 final — a 4-0 demolition by Barcelona that still stings.
Arsenal vs Chelsea: the quarterfinal that matters
That rivalry gets its next chapter on March 24, when Arsenal host Chelsea in the first leg of the Women's Champions League quarterfinal at the Emirates, with the return at Stamford Bridge eight days later. Arsenal are the defending champions — they beat Barcelona 1-0 in Lisbon last May to lift the trophy for a second time, again as underdogs — and remain the only English women's club to have won it.
Chelsea, chasing that elusive first European title, arrive as the side with most to prove. Arsenal, carrying the weight of history and a home crowd behind them, are the side with most to lose. The odds will reflect that, and rightly so — but Chelsea have enough quality to make this genuinely uncomfortable for the holders.
Scott will be pitchside for all of it, holding a microphone for ESPN's Women's Champions League coverage on Disney+ in the UK. "For me to have won the Champions League and now be this side and present in the Champions League," she said, "that's the stuff that I don't even think I've wrapped my head around."
When she retired in 2018, there were almost no former women's footballers working in broadcast. She walked into that space anyway, has now spent a decade presenting World Cups and Euros, and helped open the door for others — including former Arsenal teammate Karen Carney — to follow.
The goal in Sweden was the moment that put her name in history. Everything since has made sure it stays there.
