Barça, to reconcile with the ‘Champions’ in Eindhoven

Barça, to reconcile with the ‘Champions’ in Eindhoven

The blaugranas look for the second title in their third straight final

BARCELONA, 2 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –

FC Barcelona Femení seeks its second Champions League this Saturday (4:00 p.m.) at the PSV Stadion in Eindhoven (Netherlands) against German Wolfsburg, in an appointment to which the blaugrana arrive as light favorites and wanting to reconcile with the ‘Champions’, after losing last year’s final, in their third consecutive appearance in the fight for the title.

This Barça Femení that promoted, among others, the best player in the world, the already recovered captain Alexia Putellas, will play the fourth final this Saturday, the third in a row, in search of a second gimp (after the one in 2021 against Chelsea) with which to return to the idyll with the highest continental competition and leave behind the two lost finals.

Jonatan Giráldez’s men have had a good European campaign, and they are only one match away from being able to make up for it and continue writing golden pages for a team that, since it became professional, is laying the foundations to mark an era. Winning Wolfsburg in Eindhoven would undoubtedly be a great boost to achieve this.

Despite the fact that Asisat Oshoala is touched and Caroline Graham Hansen coming out of a virus, and despite the fact that Lucy Bronze and Fridolina Rolfö have just come out of their respective injuries, the group arrives well at the appointment. With rest, with two weeks to prepare for the game after previously celebrating the F League, and with room to try to find Wolfsburg’s weak points and find the keys to success, as they did against Roma and Chelsea in the qualifiers, or in a phase of groups with a record of 29 goals.

It will not be easy, however, to break a Wolfsburg that has two ‘Champions’ in its record and that in 2020 played, and lost, its last final. A regular, even more than Barça, in these parts and who also wants to recover the hegemony he had in 2013 and 2014.

Barça and Wolfsburg share that their last executioner in the ‘Champions’ finals was Lyon. They also have players with present and past in both clubs, like the now Blaugrana Caroline Graham Hansen. And they share struggles, several, the last precedent being that of last season.

In total they have met five times in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, with a baggage of 4 victories for the Germans and only one for Barcelona. It was in the 5-1 first leg of last season’s semifinals, when they eliminated the Germans despite suffering in the second leg (2-0 defeat in Germany).

Bad baggage for a Barça that has another reason to win. Beyond leaving the defeat in Turin behind, they can have ‘revenge’ against the Germans, a very dangerous opponent on the counter and who has Ewa Pajor, the competition’s top scorer with 8 goals.

The goal is more distributed at Barça, with 5 goals for the ‘touch’ but available for Oshoala and for Aitana Bonmatí, who is also the top assistant in the competition with 6 assists. Aitana will be key, especially if he plays closer to the goal as a midfielder. That provided that Alexia, who can play ‘false 9’, does not claim that place if he is the starter despite the lack of filming.

Another danger to take into account is Merle Frohms, the sixth goalkeeper with the most saves in the competition with 25 saves, and a 71% success rate. And, in the center of the field, the veteran Alexandra Popp, the Dutch Jill Roord (who sounds like for Barça) and the young Lena Oberdorg will be a challenge for Aitana, Patri Guijarro and Keira Walsh.

A complicated duel, with the pressure of dealing with that slight favoritism, of seeing how to fit in with an Alexia Putellas who is the benchmark but has barely been able to play after recovering from her serious knee injury. To see if Turin can be forgotten and learn from that defeat to recover the European throne.

And all this with 8,000 blaugranas in the stands and the illusion of all the Barcelona fans pushing. Barça seeks to put the second gear in Europe, with a coach, Jonatan Giráldez, who in his second final is looking for his first win as head coach, although he already enjoyed the historic victory in Gothenburg as an assistant.

DATASHEET.

–POSSIBLE ALIGNMENTS.

FC BARCELONA: Cloths: Bronze, Paredes, León, Rolfö: Walsh, Aitana Bonmatí, Alexia Putellas: Graham Hansen, Oshoala and Paralluelo.

WOLFSBURGO: Frohms; Wilms, Hendrich, Janssen, Rauch; Oberdorf, Lattwein; Huth, Roord, Popp; y Pajor.

–REFEREE: Cheryl Foster (WAL).

–ESTADIO: PSV Stadium, Eindhoven.

–TIME: 4:00 p.m./TVE and DAZN.