Barça-Atlético, the great women's Classic

Soccer would not be understood without rivalry and this would be nothing without the great confrontations or, what is the same, the Classics. Understood as the matches that face two teams between which there is a maximum rivalry, we can find many examples from one corner of the planet to another. And is that what is a Bayern-Borussia Dortmund in Germany is also an Inter-Juventus in Italy or a River-Boca Juniors in ArgentinaWithout forgetting the maximum reference in this type of game: Barça-Real Madrid that is played in Spain.

If we go from men's to women's football, the Spanish Classic changes colors, dyeing their shirts Barça and … rojiblanco. Barça-Atlético is the great duel par excellence in the Primera Iberdrola, starring in a fervent struggle for dominance of this category in Spain in recent years. It is the most anticipated match of the season in the highest women's division and, also, the one that gathers the most figures and spectacle on the lawn. The best soccer players of our country come together in it and, with them, the emotion is served.

We will not have to wait to live a Women's Classic. This Wednesday (19:00, Barça TV) We will attend the first of them, although the last is not far off in time either. And it is that it is not necessary to go far back in the calendar to find the last precedent, which was held in the Champions quarterfinals at the end of August. With Barça triumph by the minimum, after Hamraoui's goal, the event was stained by the pandemic, which left the Spanish Classic in Europe without an audience in San Mamés and with a large number of casualties in Atleti due to positives in COVID-19 .

Despite the latter, the Madrid team took its red and white DNA to make the almighty Barça suffer, who had a hard time finding the goal. This was also his problem in the semifinals, which did not have a happy ending. Wolfsburg brought down the Catalans with a goal from Rölfo that frustrated their attempt to get into the second consecutive final. The Champions for a Spanish team had to wait until this season, where Atleti and Barça are clear candidates to fight for her.

The Barça extended with that European triumph its great records in this type of matches. If we take into account the balance of the last eleven years we find that the Catalan team is the great dominator of these appointments. In total they have been disputed about thirty Classics in these eleven years, divided into twenty-two in the League, six in the Queen's Cup, one in the Super Cup and one in the Champions League. From them, Barça has been victorious on sixteen occasions compared to the five in which the victory was rojiblanco, with nine remaining draws.

It should be noted that in the cup tournament Atlético beat Barça in the 2016 final, being the reverse in 2017 and 2018, with two consecutive Barça titles. In the League, the dominance in terms of titles goes by times. Atlético won three consecutive titles between 2016 and 2019. Barça, the last league champion, had also previously won four from 2011 to 2015. In between, Athletic won the League in 2016, with Barça and Atlético second and third placed, respectively.

In addition to the aforementioned Champions, last season he left us up to four Classics, despite the fact that the season was suspended due to the pandemic. The first was on September 21, with a 6-1 win at Johan Cruyff (Amanda opened the can. Jenni called. Mariona and Oshoala scored and there were own goals by Laia and Meseguer). A historical result that supposed the biggest win by culé against the mattress team. After that appointment, two Clasicos almost simultaneously arrived, in the first Spanish Super Cup and in the League. The Catalans prevailed in the first 3-2 and, in the League duel, the result did not go from a draw to zero.

With regard to the historic win at the Johan, the fact that the Barça team maintains its idyll with the triumph at the culé stadium stands out, where matches are counted by wins since it hosted its first women's match in September 2019 (Barça 9-1 Tacon). Thus, Atlético will arrive at the match with the challenge of conquering the impregnable stadium, which has yet to know defeat. Neither has Barça lost in the last 24 games played in the League, being the only undefeated team of this new season in the League.

Intractable, the Catalan team keeps breaking records. His level last season, without defeats neither in the League, nor in the Cup or Super Cup and with only one puncture in the Champions semi-finals, has been maintained despite the interruptions of the pandemic. Lluís Cortés's team plays at an overwhelming pace, in which there is the perfect mix between a great defensive wall and the team's impeccable punch: 21 goals in 4 league games and 0 goals against. Figures that leave Barça on the edge of several records, which could be met in this Classic.

On the one hand, there would be an individual scorer milestone, in which Alexia Putellas and Jenni Hermoso fight to overcome the record of Sonia Bermúdez. The former Madrid soccer player, who hung up her boots recently, is the maximum artillery in history with the Barça elastic, with a total of 123 goals (108 in the League, 3 in the Champions League, 6 in the Cup and 6 in the Catalonia Cup) between 2011 and 2015.

The two hopefuls to equal the record of the historic scorer, Alexia Putellas and Jenni Hermoso, they add 120 goals each one as Catalans. Alexia has scored 94 goals in the League, 6 in the Champions League, 10 in the Cup, 2 in the Super Cup and 8 in the Catalonia Cup. Meanwhile, Jenni Hermoso has 101 goals in the League, 8 in the Champions League, 6 in the Cup and 5 in the Catalonia Cup, wearing the Barça shirt. Both are 3 goals away from equaling Bermúdez and in the next matches, a historic milestone could be reached.

Along these lines, Alexia Putellas showed herself in an interview with AS very excited about this scoring brand, which she did not know until recently. “When they told me, I didn't have the feeling that he had that many goals. I was very surprised, especially being close to a player that I remember when she was here the goals fell from her boots. I hope that the moment arrives for us to overcome it because it will be a good sign that things are being done very well at Barça, “he said.

Sonia Bermúdez also confesses in an interview with AS that she was surprised by the figure. “I didn't know that I had scored so many goals at that club and that my record was still years after I left the club. For me it is a privilege and pride that these two players are going to surpass me. I think that in two or three games they will beat me without a problem. I am very happy about it and very happy to have been part of Barça's history. “

On the other hand, there remains a great challenge in the Barça goal. The Catalan team equalized in their last game (victory 0-5 against Betis) the record of nine games in a row keeping a clean sheet. And it is that Lluís Cortés's have been since matchday 16 of 2019-20 without conceding a goal in the goal. The last time he achieved this record was in the 2014-15 season, from November 2014 to January 2015, with nine straight games and 891 minutes. So, if Barça hold out without conceding against Atlético until minute 54 they will have surpassed their new record of unbeaten in goal.

There is no better witness to a match than its players. And, among those players, one of the most authorized voices to speak of Atlético and Barça is Sonia Bermúdez. The legendary Spanish forward, who recently hung up her boots after playing for Levante, has played successfully for both clubs, where her career is measured in the form of titles: four Leagues, four pichichis and a Cup like Barcelona; and two Leagues and a Cup as rojiblanca.

“It is a game that every footballer would like to play. I have had the great luck of being on both sides and being able to enjoy such a beautiful game“, says Sonia Bermúdez in an interview for AS.” When I was at Barça I remember that we saw the confrontations with Atlético as the most complicated. When I went to Atlético, the feeling was the same, because we always play the league with Barça, “says Bermúdez, who has exchanged the ball for the microphone, being a commentator for Primera Iberdrola matches.

The former striker is joined in the preview of this Classic by the memories of players such as Mapi León or Pereira, who defended the rear of Atlético and are now the undisputed central pair in Barça. “The Classics are the games I always want to play”, says Pereira, in statements collected by Barça.

Meanwhile, Mapi León points out that a Classic is one “of the games in which I am going to enjoy the most “ and he states: “Playing at home always adds up. Playing at the Johan is that feeling that things are going to go well. It is important to win because there are three points that you take away from one of your biggest rivals.” For his part, Pereira wanted to conclude by wishing that the match was “as attractive as possible and that we win.” “It is logical that those parties always cost. We know the philosophy of Atleti, we have also lived there, so there are no easy games against them. Each game is a world and is a story, “he says.

Taking a walk through the history of women's duels between Atlético and Barça is like going to a Calderón with almost 14,000 people or to a Wanda with 60,739 spectators. This last figure monopolized the spotlight as the great Classic or, rather, the record Classic, with the women's football club match with the highest attendance recorded in the world. “All those people gathered there to see us play. Winning was incredible,” Mapi stressed. “It was all or nothing. If we lost, we let the League escape,” Pereira continued.

With regard to Calderón, the leadership was at stake and the old Atletico stadium made its debut with women's football before its final closure. It was all a success. The unexpected lines of almost 500 meters and the great atmosphere that was in the surroundings forced the club to open more parts of the stadium that it had not planned to offer. In total, 13,935 spectators and a 2-1 score for the rojiblancas.

Sonia Bermúdez, who could not experience the historic Wanda match, but did star in the Calderón match, relates: “The match I remember the most is the day we played at the Calderón in a match that if we won we would gain a few points distance with them in the absence of a few days. And I was lucky to score there. It was very nice“, says the former player, who will see the Classic today with a divided heart.” I do not opt ​​for any. I am a fan and I wish you both the best. Both teams have great squads. I think that Barça is a little higher, but Atlético de Madrid never gives a game for lost. It will be a very close match in which we will enjoy a great show, “he underlines.

There are no Classics without reunions. The transfer of players between Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid In recent years, he has left us with several players who have worn the jersey of both teams. With the last summer blank in terms of level leaks in the two teams towards that eternal rival for the dominance of Spanish women's football, there are up to seven reunions.

One of the last to star in an Atlético-Barça transfer was Jenni Hermoso, that he did not renew his contract and returned to Barça, a club where he already played for two years after having trained in the rojiblanca youth academy a couple of summers ago. Duggan went the other way with the aim of becoming one of the leaders in the rojiblanco attack. And, thus, up to seven examples in recent seasons.

He accompanied the two forwards that summer Andrea Falcon, Like Jenni, he returned to Barca, where he played four years from 2012 to 2016, after three seasons as rojiblanca. In previous seasons the defenses also crossed the airlift from Madrid to Barcelona Andrea Pereira and Mapi León. The latter played for Atlético from 2014 to 2017, the year in which her transfer to Barça took place, leaving a historic milestone in Spanish women's football: it was the first transfer between two Spanish clubs for which money was paid (50,000 euros ). At Barcelona he took ownership from the first moment and is one of the defensive references for both the Barça team and the National Team.

Shortly after, Andrea Pereira also took the suitcases to Barcelona. The Barcelona native returned to her hometown after a two-season stint at Atlético, which she arrived in 2016 by winning an Iberdrola League in her first year. After Mapi left, he took center stage and became one of Atlético's defensive pillars. It was precisely his performance as a red-and-white defender that led him to sign for Barça after having won their second title with Madrid in 2018.

In the opposite direction, from Barcelona to Madrid, there are transfers such as that of Laia Aleixandri, who was one of the pillars of the Barça subsidiary during its training, but did not finish seeing the opportunity to grow in the first team. It was then when she signed for Atlético, who saw her as a center-back with a great future and she was not wrong. It has become the defensive pillar of Atleti. Another former Barça player in the Atleti dressing room is Virginia Torrecilla, who played for the Catalan club for three seasons and who is out with Atlético and will not be able to play this Wednesday.

Without a doubt, all of them will experience a very special match at the Johan Cruyff. With reunion or not, the appointment invites emotion. Its a classic. A high tension duel. A game in which feelings run faster than the ball. And now yes, reserve a place for this great women's match at 19:00 (Barça TV). Let the ball start rolling!