Real Sociedad and FC Barcelona. Natalia Arroyo and Jonatan Giráldez. Today in La Romareda they face the same idea of football. Two lovers of possession and pressure. The more than 20,000 fans who will attend the Aragonese stadium can be sure that the show is guaranteed. Nobody doubts that the great favorite is FC Barcelona, with nine cup titles under their belt, but Real Sociedad has proven to be one of the rivals that has made things most difficult for the Blaugrana in recent years. “It’s going to be a vibrant match for sure,” Arroyo predicted yesterday, who wants the final “to be long” in order to put Barça in “maximum discomfort.” The Txuri-Urdin team already knows what it is to win a Queen’s Cup, and also do so with the role of Cinderella. The Gipuzkoans took the trophy in 2019, beating Atlético de Madrid in the final, which had eliminated Barça.
Arroyo recognized the headaches when preparing for a match against the Catalans: “It is always the same torture when you consider how to play against Barça. We have tried different things, but this Barça has resolved all approaches with victories. “We will try to replicate the things that have worked for us.”
But Jonatan Giráldez is not afraid of what his counterpart may propose: “One of the things in which we have improved is the team’s ability to adapt according to what the rival proposes to us. We will know how to find solutions.”
The coach announced yesterday that Sandra Paños, who will leave the club this summer, will be the starting goalkeeper in her last final as a Blaugrana: “It has not been an easy year for me, with a different role than the one I was used to. I face these days enjoying the last minutes I have left at the club and I am focused on leaving with the maximum number of titles,” confessed the woman from Alicante.
Beyond the goal, few changes are expected in the Blaugrana eleven. The Champions League final against Lyon next week is in the spotlight, but no one forgets that today a title is also at stake and this Barça wants the historic poker of trophies.
Neither because of the proximity of the duel against Lyon, nor because of the favorites in the Cup against Real, Giráldez does not fear that the team will get lost: “No one is thinking about next week’s match. From how I have seen the team train this week I am not seeing relaxation. On the contrary, I see a lot of hunger, a lot of concentration. “We don’t think at all that we are going to go out and win without playing.”
“We don’t feel like favorites. It’s a final and we have to go out and win it. It’s a game, anything can happen,” Claudia Pina predicted this week. And the team is very clear that labels are a matter for the media: “We will face the game with enough humility to know that we must deserve to win the game,” said Giráldez.