Sunday, May 2nd. 94th minute of the match. Barça beat PSG 2-1 in the Champions League semi-final. Tension can be cut on the Johan Cruyff. The seconds are hours for a team that yearns to return to a European final. And, finally, the referee whistles the end of the game. The Catalans certify their presence in Gothenburg. And, with it, the explosion of sensations is enormous in the culé stadium, with a Lluís Cortés who could not contain his tears, who could not better reflect the emotion of receiving an award after two tireless years of work.
The Catalan coach has been the great helmsman of this Barça, the best Barça in history. She came to the women's bench at the beginning of 2019 and managed to reach the first Champions League final for this team and for Spanish women's football. A bittersweet experience, with a tough defeat against Lyon (4-1) and great learning for the Catalans. Lluís Cortés got oil from that and he knew how to make the most of any teaching that could be drawn from that blow.
Thus, the Catalan coach completely changed the preparation of his team and decided to take a quantitative and qualitative leap in training. “It is the only way to get closer to the best teams in Europe “Lluís Cortés confessed months later. The result has come, sooner rather than later, although for the coach and Barça players it has seemed like an eternity. Two years later, Barça is back in a final. And he does it with the feeling and the evidence that they are not the team that succumbed to Lyon.
Now they too are part and shape a European giant. “It was unthinkable because playing two finals in three years is only available to the great teams and it has been shown that right now Barça is one of the top teams in Europe, “said Lluís Cortés, who was euphoric after signing for the Champions League final. The Catalan coach continues to stand out as one of the most technicians values of women's football.
“Justice has been served”
And this led him to receive a multitude of comments of admiration from other colleagues through social networks. “Only the one who suffers it knows it. Congratulations @ Llcortes14”, published Carlos Santiso, coach of Rayo Vallecano, next to an image of the Barça coach very excited after the Champions League game.
“I feel incredible joy. They are many hours of work and many days of training since the final in Budapest and we really wanted to return the sooner the better. We stayed very close this summer, but we knew that we were there, that there was no distance and that we had to touch him. Justice has finally been served with this team. We are very happy to reach the final and do not doubt that we will win it “, said the Lleida player after winning PSG.
Cortés thus continues to expand his successful record at the helm of Barça, where he arrived in the summer of 2017 to work as an analyst. After a year and a half, in which he was also an assistant, replaced Fran Sánchez as women's coach in January 2019. With him, the team experienced a relaunch that, based on good football, has left a League and a half in the club's showcases (four points remain to certify the national title), a Cup and a Super Cup. Some trophies to which on May 16 he wants to incorporate the Champions League.