Liverpool, Palace, Arsenal Women parade trophies in front of jubilant fans

It was a day for trophy parades in English soccer on Monday as fans of Liverpool, Crystal Palace and Arsenal Women celebrated their teams winning titles.

It started with thousands of supporters gathering outside Emirates Stadium in north London to watch Arsenal's players show off the Women's Champions League trophy after they returned from Lisbon, where they beat Barcelona 1-0 in the final on Saturday.

Donning shirts with "Champions 25" on the back, Arsenal's players — some wearing sunglasses despite the gray sky — were introduced individually onto a stage to cheers.

Over in south London, a bus containing Palace players wound through the streets on its long route to an estimated 20,000 people waiting at the team's Selhurst Park home as the club paraded the FA Cup — the first major trophy in its 119-year history.

Palace beat Manchester City 1-0 in the final on May 17.

The biggest party came in Liverpool city center, where tens of thousands of dancing, scarf-and-flag-waving fans braved wet weather to line the streets and watch Liverpool's players display the Premier League trophy atop two buses bearing the words "Ours Again" — a nod to securing a record-tying 20th top-flight championship to draw level with great rival Manchester United.

The hours-long procession — surrounded by a thick layer of police and security — crawled along a 10-mile (16-kilometer) route and through a sea of red smoke and rain. Fireworks exploded from the Royal Liver Building in the heart of the city.

It has been a long wait for Liverpool fans who couldn't publicly celebrate the team's last league title — in 2020 — due to restrictions in place at the time during the pandemic. Liverpool's previous league title came in 1990.

"We just want to enjoy this moment as much as we can because we know how in football things change quickly," Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker said. "Tomorrow when the celebrations finish, we go for a new challenge. But we celebrate now."

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer