A few hours before the final of the Women’s Champions League, Barça informed Xavi Hernández that he would no longer lead the men’s team, unleashing an information hurricane that overshadowed the preview of the grand final that San Mamés will host tomorrow. An unpleasant coincidence that diverted the focus from Bilbao and returned it to Barcelona, ??although Jonatan Giráldez was convinced that nothing will overshadow the grand final: “Obviously, in such an important match there will be nothing that will divert our attention. The stimulus tomorrow is enough to only think about the final. “We have won many titles this season and right now the only tension is to have a great training session because tomorrow we want to show that we want to be the best team in Europe,” said the coach. The man from Vigo insisted: “Life goes on, things happen and we have little to say in this case.” Aitana Bonmatí also threw things out: “You don’t need many explanations. We want to be one hundred percent focused on the game. “I wouldn’t like to talk too much about the rest.”
In terms of sports, both agree that the two best teams in the world are facing each other: FC Barcelona and Olympique Lyon. “We are the two best teams in terms of squad, game proposal, ability to adapt… I think it will be a great final and the public will enjoy it,” Giráldez confessed. For Aitana, the final is “50-50, even” and appeals to the ambition of the locker room: “Without this winning mentality we would not be where we are.”
Barça reaches this new final with a much more mature version after having overcome complicated scenarios such as the comeback in last year’s final against Wolfsburg or the tie against Chelsea: “As a team, when you go through difficult things you learn and we have learned a lot of playing in these finals, the ones we have won and the ones we have lost. “We are more prepared and more mature,” said Graham Hansen.
On the other side, the coach of Olympique de Lyon, Sonia Bompastor, acknowledged that this Barça “is a different team than the one we faced two years ago.” “The final in Turin marked them, they have evolved,” confessed the Frenchwoman who, despite everything, believes that “each final is a new story, a different match.”
Cristiane Endler, for her part, spoke about the extra motivation of playing in a field where the rival fans will be the majority: “We know that more than 80% of the public will be from Barcelona, ??but we are prepared. We already experienced it in Turin and that gives us extra motivation,” explained Lyon’s Chilean goalkeeper.
