Football is in celebration today in Barcelona. It’s true that yesterday, Sunday 27th April, Leo Messi gave FC Barcelona the title of La Liga 2018/19, after winning by one goal to Levante. But that’s not everything to celebrate in Barcelona.
Women’s football in Spain is also in celebration. FC Barcelona has made it through today, 28th April, to their first final of the Champions League in history.
If any of the Barcelona players who debuted in the Champions League on September 26, 2012 (defeat by 0-3 against Arsenal) knew that only seven years later the team would be playing a Champions League final, they would probably haven’t believed it. But, there are dreams that with work and patient are fulfilled. They’re the best example.
The Barça team will be present on May 18 at the Groupama Arena in Budapest in what will be the first continental final for a Spanish team in women’s football history.
Barcelona went through after beating Bayern Münich in a clash that should be kept in memory (1-0). Not only was it won in Munich in the first leg, the first victory of a Spanish women club over a German women club, but it was ratified in a Mini Estadi Stadium that signed a record capacity (12,764 spectators) despite being election day in Spain and hangover league title of the first men’s team.
Nobody wanted to miss the appointment. The President of the club, Josep Bartomeu, the vice president, Jordi Mestre; the coach of the men’s team, Ernesto Valverde; and the national coach, Jorge Vilda.
The party followed the planned script. Lluis Cortés bet for the same side with which he displayed in Germany, while Bayern’s coach Thomas Wörle made a mini-revolution looking for more intensity, depth and flip the score. Fortunately, that revolution didn’t work.
The match was intense at all moment, but just before the halftime, Barcelona opened the score from the penalty spot, thanks to a big Mariona, who would later be the hero of the match for the Blaugrana. In the second half, Barcelona made it clear that they have risen one step further at the continental level.
Bayern had their chances as well. Däbritz and Rolfö went on to shoot empty goal without success putting a knot in the throat to the culé fans. Moreover, in the middle of the last minutes, the guardian angel of Barcelona, Paños, appeared to put her hand in Skorvankova’s head on the edge of the small area.
The last minutes were pure fire, with both teams attacking wildly both sides, something that could have altered the score, but at the end, the party was served with the minimum income.
Its rival for the continental title will emerge from the duel in a few hours; the clash that will play Olympique Lyonnais and Chelsea (2-1 in the first semifinal leg played in Lyon). In the end, FC Barcelona has made history: They will enter in the history books of Spanish women’s football and the Champions League competition.
WOMEN IN FOOTBALL: THE GLASS CEILING 