To live you have to believe. The Barcelona players believed, given to the revolt because they more than anyone know that there will always be those who want to deny them. Whoever wants to delete them. And the 10,000 Barça fans who populated the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven believed, given to car trips of more than 20 hours, with families holding hands with children whose families will never be able to pay tickets either at the Camp Nou or in exile at Montjuïc, and who feel they have recovered the pride of belonging to football as always, the one that no longer exists with the masculine. Because that's where the industry rules, not the people.

Barcelona won the second Champions League in its history, after the success of 2021 in Göteborg, because it had the guts and quality to lift the 0-2 with which Wolfsburg had punished it in the first half. Patri Guijarro, the silent engine of this team, enjoyed the day of his life scoring two goals in two minutes. In both episodes he looked for El Dorado from the second line, always leaving Huth behind, and crowning what was created from the band by Graham Hansen, maddening to his rivals, and Aitana Bonmatí, decisive when he should. The final 3-2, blessed poetic justice, was taken by Fridolina Rolfö, the same player who, even in the ranks of Wolfsburg, sank the Barça in the semifinals of 2020, when Barcelona began to understand that Europe would end up being theirs.

Alexia Putellas, the double Ballon d'Or who has spent nine months off, was able to play the minutes of added time. The torment experienced deserved the prize from his coach, no matter how much Wolfsburg denied his surrender until the very sunset. The Germans have lost their last four Champions League finals.

Practicality, order and effectiveness in the hot areas of the field. Football, sometimes, can be much simpler than it seems. Jonatan Giráldez, coach of Barcelona who premiered paternity only eight days ago, and with the baby in the stands, twisted his lineup. It was surprising that the Brazilian Geyse was left out of the starting eleven, even more so in the absence of Oshoala due to injury. It was Salma Paralluelo who had to act as a battering ram, when her football requires spaces and field to make it work.

Tommy Stroot, Wolfsburg's conductor, seemed to be satisfied with a small variation. He placed Popp, hardened in a thousand battles, as an offensive reference; and above all he escorted the band to his sharpest stiletto, the Polish Pajor, to make life impossible for the painful Bronze. Thus, the runners-up of the Women's Bundesliga had enough in the first act to score two goals in their only three approaches.

A year ago, in the final lost in Turin, Barcelona saw Olympique Lyon score in the sixth minute. This time the first blow came even earlier. Bronze, who had not played a game since undergoing arthroscopy in her right knee on April 26 and who appeared in the game with a bandage on her thigh, entertained himself in driving. Pajor went towards her with the speed and forcefulness of the fly swatter. He took the ball away from her and didn't want to wait any longer. He released a deflection from the front that bent the mitt of the goalkeeper Paños.

Between Pajor and Popp, who had just knocked down Mapi León at the beginning of the transition, they plotted the 0-2 crowned by the captain of the German national team. But Barcelona, this time, was not going to get carried away with the whole second half ahead.

Rolfö hugs his teammates after the 3-2.Martin MeissnerAP

Giráldez insisted with his plan, convinced that the also champions of La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup would react despite the spider web laid by Oberdorf, with traps in his boots. The solutions had to go through what was generated in the bands, with Graham Hansen's right bank as a paradise to explore. The Norwegian danced with the gaze of one who laughs inside, never outside. Pebble showed his companions the meaning of the epic. And Rolfö, after a tangle of the plants from which Mariona made a profit, caught the goal that settled the revolution.

Alexia shot from the bench. She was the first one who ran to hug her. The image was poetic.

  • FC Barcelona
  • Articles Francisco Cabezas

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