Sunday’s Women’s Champions League final in Gothenburg between Chelsea and Barcelona is the most significant since 2010 when the competition was rebranded from the Uefa Woman’s Cup and became a one-off final. The tie confirms change is blowing through the women’s game and that these two clubs are at the forefront.
This is the sport’s first European final featuring clubs which are more accustomed to contesting the men’s final. It is also the first without a French or German team involved since 2007 when Arsenal, with Hayes as assistant manager, beat Umea of Sweden. But it won’t be the last in either case.
Every major club in Europe now has a women’s team, but unlike many of those climbing aboard the bandwagon both finalists have a heritage in the women’s game, each being formed by supporters around three decades ago before coming under the wing of the parent club in the early years of this century.
Founder members of the WSL in 2011 Chelsea stepped up a gear after appointing Emma Hayes manager in 2012. A year later they hosted the Women’s Champions League final at Stamford Bridge. As Hayes watched Wolfsburg beat Lyon, she said to the chairman, Bruce Buck, sitting alongside: “It’ll be us one day, Bruce, it will be us, so give me time.”
That same season Barcelona entered European competition for the first time and were swatted away by Arsenal in the first round. Women’s football was largely amateur in Spain with the better players heading to USA, Sweden and even England with a trio of players, including current Barcelona captain Vicky Losada, joining Arsenal in 2015.
As in England, however, there has been serious investment in recent years with more than 60,000 watching Atletico Madrid play Barcelona at Wanda Metropolitan in 2019. Barcelona’s Jenni Hermoso, who went to Sweden to play in 2013, said: “I went to be a professional and live like a footballer. Now we’re living it here at home.”
Besides bringing together some of the leading players of a fast-improving Spanish national team Barcelona have signed a clutch of experienced foreigners including Norway’s Caroline Graham Hansen, twice a runner-up with Wolfsburg, Lieke Martens, the Dutch star of the 2017 Euros, and Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala, once of Liverpool and Arsenal.
This season they have been untouchable scoring 128 goals in 26 league matches and 24 in eight European ties. All but two matches were won, and the only defeat, by 2-1 at Manchester City in the European quarter-final, mattered little after a 3-0 first leg win.
“They have had an exceptional season,” said Hayes. “They have been building towards their own Champions League success. They have the experience of being beaten finalists [in 2019] and for once we are the underdogs – in the bookies’ eyes I might add.
“I welcome that pressure. I think we are approaching our best form and I really believe there’s another level in us. My message to the team will be we have demonstrated we are the best team in England, now to become the best team in Europe you have to show another side.”
Only one of her players has previously appeared in a final, Pernille Harder, who lost with Wolfsburg in 2018 and 2020. The Dane now forms an attacking trident for Chelsea with Fran Kirby and Sam Kerr which has scored 68 goals this season.
However, Barcelona’s own forward talent suggests the most important players for Chelsea are as likely to be goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger and captain Magda Eriksson. When Eriksson was injured recently Chelsea looked vulnerable. Her return to fitness is timely.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3oj8Ae3
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