Beat with epicness. Believing themselves superior and capable of everything. Even coming back from the most complicated matches, as happened against Bayern at the Bernabéu in the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals without any surprises. Their competitive style and the necessary dose of luck accompanied by some refereeing controversy never leaves them. White’s dominance in Europe has been solid and consolidated for a decade against a dwindling Barcelona that has not contested a European final since Berlin 2015.
So far, Barça has lifted the maximum continental title five times. On June 1, Real Madrid will look for the fifteenth scepter against Borussia Dortmund. It will be at Wembley. In his seventh final of this 21st century. And without missing a single one, out of five of the last 11 years.
Madrid’s idyll with the Champions League final seems to have no end, but after beating Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow in 2002, a Barcelona cyclone arrived. The Barça of Rijkaard, Eto’o and Ronaldinho beat Arsenal in Paris in 2006. Excellence came in 2009, a year that is history for the achievement of the Blaugrana sextet. The Barça of Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets or Piqué commanded by Guardiola and with Puyol as captain lifted the Champions League against United in Rome 2009 and repeated in 2011 at Wembley. The cycle ended in the Berlin final in 2015. A Champions League that meant the club’s second treble. It was signed by Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez under the baton of Luis Enrique. Four finals in ten years. All won.
Then came two consecutive plantings. On May 7, 2019, the team lost 4-0 in the semi-finals of the Champions League against Liverpool at Anfield, unable to defend the 3-0 lead at Camp Nou. The crisis was in full evidence the following year with the 8-2 against Bayern in Da Luz in the quarters. Barça has matched its darkness with the clarity of its rival. Since then, Atlético, in 2014 and 2016; Juventus, in 2017, and Liverpool, in 2018 and 2022, have been their victims. It doesn’t matter who is in charge on the bench. Or the stars that pass. The shield of Real Madrid commanded by Florentino Pérez is above world figures such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Ramos, Benzema or the injuries of Courtois, Militão or Alaba.
Unlike Barcelona. The League and the Super Cup won by Xavi’s men last year were a short-lived illusion for a club that will play on loan in Montjuïc while Laporta’s management puts its heritage up for sale by activating levers and ganging up the workers of the Turkish construction company Limak so that the new Spotify Camp Nou is a reality (at 60% capacity) by the end of 2024. Then it will be time to look for new income and return with interest the 1.45 billion euros of the agreed financing operation. Real Madrid, for its part, already has the new Bernabéu, the stadium it built during the pandemic, when football was played behind closed doors, ready with a roof and a large video scoreboard.
Blaugrana’s drought of titles has also affected the professional sections – basketball, handball, futsal and roller hockey – when they compete abroad. As a result of the complicated economic situation, the board took out the scissors and this year cut between 15% and 20% of its budgets. Some cuts that have been reflected in the results. This year they all skated in Europe. Except handball, which is classified for the final four in Cologne.
The only Blaugrana light among so much disappointment is the Barça women’s team with four consecutive Champions League finals and two in the showcases. They will look for the third on May 25 in Bilbao against the almighty Lyon. And his future? It still has to be written. But it will be safe without the architect Markel Zubizarreta, now at the Federation, and without Jonatan Giráldez, who will change the Barcelona bench for one in the United States. The future of players like Ballon d’Or Alexia Putellas and Mariona Caldentey is up in the air.
