Aitana Bonmati, a Barcelona midfielder, described the Catalans as the “catalans” as the “catalans” who have come to mind as they have become in the lead up to the women’s Champions League final game against Arsenal on Saturday.
Lyon, the record eight-time champions, lost to Barca in the final last year and last won in 2022.
In contrast, Bonmati’s Barcelona have triumphed in three of the competition’s previous four contests and advanced to six finals in seven years, establishing them as Europe’s dominant force.
“They had their path, and now we have our path,” Bonmati said, “I don’t want to compare us to Lyon.”
We used to speak very well of them, saying that many teams were their mirrors in the past, and that is now.
We are proud of our journey, and we’ll try to be even more “historical” tomorrow.
At the Lisbon-based Jose Alvalade stadium, Barcelona take on Arsenal for the first time since winning the competition in 2007, which was the UEFA Women’s Cup.
Twelve years after their 100th game against Arsenal, the Catalans will play their 100th in Europe.
The English side’s round of 32 defeats Barcelona 7-0 over two legs in the 2012-13 Champions League, with Alexia Putellas the only player to survive.
There’s no need to mention the scoreline, “laughed Putellas, who is a two-time Ballon d’Or winner, like Bonmati.”
It was impossible to imagine what would come after our first European game, which was Barca Femeni’s history, would have been… it’s incredible how much there has changed and evolved.
We recently transitioned to professionalism, and we made it to the top six. I consider myself fortunate to have traveled this route.
With this trophy in hand, the first game was against Arsenal, and tomorrow’s is also that way.
After losing to Levante and Real Madrid in the league for the first time in a loss to their Clasico rival, Barcelona faced criticism earlier in the season.
After defeating English treble-winning Chelsea 8-2 on aggregate, Putellas claimed the team was in excellent form for the game against Renee Slegers’ side.
We leave (at the end) feeling very good, have a lot of energy, and have worked well all year, Putellas said.
We feel good both physically and mentally about our game play.
However, she claimed that Barca won’t take a victory for granted just because it has a long history.
The playmaker added, “We’ve won three Champions Leagues, but that doesn’t mean we start one game up 1-0 tomorrow.”
We’ll leave our skins on to take home the trophy.
Last year, Barcelona won the quadruple under Pere Romeu, who left at the end of the season and replaced Jonatan Giraldez.
The team has already won Liga F and the Spanish Super Cup, but it took them some time to come up with their best level.
The coach remarked, “It’s a special game because it’s a final.”
This team has worked well in the past, has a lot of work done this week, and has spoken to all the staff, which gives me the (feel of) security that we’ll do well.
“We have to go out there and try to dominate,” he said.
Source: Channels TV
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