Gabriel Reflects on Season of Glory and Regret

Gabriel refuses to be defined by a single step and a single strike of the ball.

Weeks after his missed penalty in the Champions League final shoot-out handed PSG the trophy and denied Arsenal a historic double, the defender has chosen not to hide from the moment. Instead, he has folded it into the story of a season he still calls “very good”.

Speaking at the World Cup with Brazil ahead of their game against Haiti, the 28-year-old cut a composed figure, a long way from the anguish that followed that fateful kick.

“I cannot complain,” he said, the words as much a message to himself as to anyone listening. “I had a very good season with Arsenal. We managed to achieve the (Premier League) title after 22 years and got to the final of the Champions League.”

One sentence, two truths: glory and regret.

Arsenal’s title, their first league crown in over two decades, had already been secured before the showdown with PSG. The Champions League final was meant to be the coronation, the night the club stepped fully back into Europe’s elite. Instead, after a 1-1 draw in regular time, it ended in the cruelty of penalties, with Gabriel’s miss tilting the shoot-out France’s way.

He doesn’t shy away from that responsibility.

“When you have to score a penalty, there are consequences,” he said. No excuses, no deflection. Just the blunt reality every player understands when they walk from the centre circle to the spot.

But he refuses to let that moment eclipse everything else.

“I’m very happy to be here and to be representing my country,” he added, the shift from club heartbreak to national pride underlining his perspective. The season did not finish with a medal in Wembley’s night air, but it did carry him into a World Cup with Brazil, a destination many dream of and few reach.

In that final, as Arsenal’s players sank to their knees, one figure in a PSG shirt moved in the opposite direction. Marquinhos, Gabriel’s Brazil team-mate, headed straight for the man who had just missed.

“That was a moment of sadness for me,” Gabriel recalled. “The first thing he did was not celebrate, but give me a hug. What I can say is that he gave me all the support.”

No grand gestures. Just a quiet act of solidarity between two centre-backs who know each other’s game and character inside out.

“I’ve been here with him on the national team for two or three years, and I learn every day whenever I’m with him,” Gabriel said. “I’m a fan of him as a person and as a player. My affection for him grew even more after the Champions League final.”

The image of Marquinhos choosing compassion over celebration will linger as long as any highlight from that night. For Gabriel, it has already become part of the way he processes defeat: not as a scar, but as a lesson wrapped in friendship.

He cannot change the penalty. He can change what follows.

Now, with Brazil chasing World Cup success and Arsenal preparing to defend their Premier League crown and go again in Europe, Gabriel stands at the intersection of pain and possibility — and he has already decided which way to look.