From Budapest to Gothenburg: a two-year jump for Barça

Barça has gone from cinderella to coconut in the Champions League. A change that was born at the end of the 2019 edition. So, the Barça team faced the almighty Olympique de Lyon, current champion of the last five continental crowns. A crossing that supposed a disappointment for the culé squad (defeat by 4-1). But, also deep learning.

The Barça took and turned that appointment in a great point of inflection. Proof of this is his great game now, being the top scorer in the League and the Champions League. The Catalan team has matured its ideas and has doubled its preparation in form, type and efforts. The way of thinking and competing was changed, keeping his style intact, with which they wear the best Barça DNA, and the pillars of the dressing room that reached the first final of a Spanish club.

The faces at Barça have not changed much in these two years. Same coach, Lluís Cortés, and a large percentage of female players (14 of the current 24) who lived the European experience in Budapest. Nor has there been a flurry of signings after that final. In the current squad the young academy players take more weight than the new stars.

Jenni Hermoso and Graham Hansen, luxury reinforcements

Although there is also an example of the latter, with a great protagonism of Jenni Beautiful, who lived that final from the stands and then decided to return to the team where he had raised his first league goals and where he continues to score like the most, and Graham Hansen, great dagger of the catalan women.

With them, the change has been more possible. Its quality and potential on green has fitted perfectly into a project that was presented at Budapest 2019 and that he is now at the ideal moment to finish the job.

Unrivaled at the national level, being the current champion of the last two Leagues and the Cup, Barça has staged everything that was proposed after succumbing to Lyon, whom they now hope to accompany in the European Olympus. “After Budapest, the goal was to be the best in Europe”, Lluís Cortés said in the run-up to this final with Chelsea. The Barça coach summarizes in a few words what it all was a pact and change of chip in the Barcelona dressing room.

Players and coaching staff decided to make a clean slate, with an enviable capacity for self-criticism. It will not be easy either now, with a rival who sports first international swords in his team, but at least this time few consider the Barça team for dead before taking the field. Now he is more alive than ever. A sensation that has been earned in these two unforgettable years (four titles) for the culés.