Barça Femení can change the history of the ‘Champions’ in Bilbao
The blaugranas face a Lyon that has 8 titles and has won the 2 finals played
BARCELONA, 24 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça Femení faces Olympique de Lyon this Saturday in San Mamés (Bilbao) (6:00 p.m.) in a final of the Women’s Champions League that faces the Blaugranas who are defending their title and who are playing their fourth consecutive final against the French team who are their ‘black beast’ and the queens of the record with eight titles, the last of them added in 2022 against the ‘culers’.
It will be a final with crumbs. Surely, between the two most in-form teams at the moment and with past quarrels that will be very present in the Bilbao field, which has hung the ‘no tickets’ sign and that will have a Blaugrana majority in its stands, with fans willing to, Finally, being able to celebrate a ‘Champions’ against a Lyon that has won the two previous finals played between both teams.
Lyon is and will continue to be, no matter what happens, the team with the most ‘Champions’, since they have eight and in Bilbao they are looking for the ninth. But Barça reaches its fourth consecutive final, the fifth in the last six editions, and has won two of them. The first, against Chelsea (4-0) in Gothenburg, in 2021, and the second last year against Wolfsburg (3-2), in Eindhoven and with a comeback included.
Two against eight is a big difference but Barça arrives in Bilbao ready to add and enjoy the third, which would be the first against a Lyon that it wants to continue challenging in this decade in which, for the moment, they have two goals each. So this final will shift, towards Barcelona or Lyon, that continental dominance in the present.
In 2019, the Blaugranas lost a resounding 4-1 against Lyon, in what was the first final for inexperienced ‘culers’ players. A hat-trick beating by Ada Hegerberg who is still at Lyon but who arrives at this final in shock. In 2022, Barça thought they would be closer to Lyon’s level, but the 3-1 score brought them back to reality. Now, with Jonatan Giráldez as the current champions, Lyon is still a favorite but perhaps not as much.
A Jonatan Giráldez who will leave at the end of the season, by his own decision and to embark on a new adventure in the United States. And he wants to leave, like the entire dressing room and the club, with a ‘Champions’ team that would allow him to sign the ‘poker’ after winning League F, Spanish Super Cup and Copa de la Reina this season. The team is doing well, they have barely suffered in one or two games, and they want to continue stalking a Lyon they have never beaten.
And Lyon reaches its eleventh final, after missing the 2023 final but after beating the ‘culers’ in 2022, which was its eighth crown and extended its record in the tournament. Olympique has four wins in four games against Barça Femení, and they know that if they win this Saturday their status as the ‘black beast’ of the Catalan team will be reinforced.
And although it is true that in this decade Barça almost stands out somewhat above Lyon, the French have in their ranks the highest assist in history in the competition, Marozsan with 29 assists on goals, the player with the most games played, defender Wendie Renard, with 115 duels, and the all-time top scorer; Norwegian Ada Hegerberg (64 goals).
THE PATH OF BOTH TEAMS TOWARDS SAN MAMÉS
Barça Femení is seeking its third ‘Champions’, the second in a row in its fourth straight final. How did you get here? Well, with a single, inconsequential defeat, in the first leg of the semifinals against Chelsea, with that 0-1 in Montjuïc that they turned around at Stamford Bridge with the 0-2 victory, led by the Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí , one of the architects of Barça being considered the best team last year. Previously, Barça beat the Norwegian Brann in the quarterfinals and led its group with solvency, with all victories and a single final draw.
For this final, Jonatan Giráldez could not have casualties. At the moment he has one, that of the central defense Mapi León. But the Aragonese has been training with the group for a few days and she could receive a medical discharge, although she is not expected to see her on the San Mamés grass. The rest are fine, willing to row so that this ‘Champions’, the third they have played against Lyon, they can take home.
Salma Paralluelo, with 6 goals, is the most inspired footballer in this competition in a Barça Femení that is being coral in terms of goals, with 5 for Caroline Graham Hansen and Aitana Bonmatí and 4 for Patri Guijarro, confirming that the Blaugrana second line He is very connected, thanks to the style of this team, which is to have the ball and attack with very close lines.
For its part, Lyon began with a very convincing away victory, defeating Slavia Prague 0-9, a group stage that it led despite drawing precisely with Brann. In the quarterfinals they faced Benfica, Barça’s rival in the group, and after coming back to win 1-2 in the first leg, they won 4-1 in Lyon, despite suffering more than the result may reflect. As they also suffered in the semis in the derby against PSG, which they won 3-2 in Lyon and 1-2 in Paris.
This Lyon has an Ada Hegerberg who was injured for months and who returned to the team a few days ago, so she does not look like a starter but she does look like a top-quality booster. On the other hand, the new reference could be Kadidiatou Diani, signed from PSG last summer and who is the top scorer of this ‘Champions’ with 8 goals and forms a luxury offensive trident, which is scary, with Delphine Cascarino and Melchie Dumornay .
Lyon’s coach, former player Sonia Bompastor – who has won the ‘Champions’ as a player and coach – will be without veteran striker Eugénie Le Sommer, eight-time champion, and German midfielder Sara Däbritz, while The defender Griedge Mbock Bathy has not played for a month and is a doubt, more so than Hegerberg who is expected to play a few minutes.
DATASHEET.
–POSIBLE ALIGNMENTS.
WOMEN’S BAR: Cata Coll; Bronze, Paredes, Engen, Rolfö; Walsh, Aitana Bonmatí, Patri Guijarro; Graham Hansen, Paralluelo and Mariona.
LYON: Endler; Carpenter, Renard, Gilles, Bacha; Van de Donk, Egurrola, Horan; Cascarino, Dumornay and Diani.
–REFEREE: Rebecca Welch (ING).
–STADIUM: San Mamés (Bilbao).
–TIME: 18.00/DAZN and TV3.