Euro 2022 winner Alessia Russo on making history, inspiring a generation and that viral backheel goal in Arsenal’s 3-0 win at Wanda Metropolitano
Alessia Russo’s third goal in as many games was an exclamation mark on a fantastic season that has already seen her crowned Copa America and UEFA Women’s Champions League runner-up
This season has been a roller-coaster for 20-year-old forward Alessia Russo, and perhaps one of the best experiences of her career to date.
On Tuesday night, in the first leg of the final of the Copa Libertadores against rivals Atlético Mineiro, she scored twice in a match that saw her become the first player from outside Argentina and Brazil to score in a final in the 20-year history of the tournament.
Worried that her feat would go unnoticed, so great was the response to her first goal at this level that the commentator on the BBC television programme Match of the Day said she should have been awarded a “Wembley-best 10,000” (a British record for goals in a final).
The second-longest-ever game in the history of tournament play in Spain saw her score against Atlético to seal a 6-3 aggregate victory, which meant that the team from Montevideo would win their ninth title and become the first club from Uruguay to win the competition and the first in the history of the tournament to win the ‘megafinal’.
The following month and a half, Alessia got her hand on what would be her final goal – a goal that would become her most famous away goal, her backheel goal for Arsenal in the final of the UEFA Women’s Champions League at the Emirates – in the semi-final of the Copa Libertadores against Peru.
“I didn’t expect this to happen in my life,” she had said after scoring against Atlético in the Libertadores final, her career seemingly over. And she was right.
Alessia Russo in action as Arsenal beat Atlético, 6-3 on aggregate
So how does one make history and win a football tournament? Well, like the rest of us, it’s