Barça crowned against Lyon, a title that looks like a transfer of power

The Barcelona women won their third European title on Saturday, winning in the final against the Lyonnaises, whom they had never beaten before.

And in the end, it is no longer OL, but Barcelona who win. In Bilbao, 600 kilometers from their city and their stadium, the Blaugranas won the final of the Champions League version 2023-2024, Saturday May 25. In a stadium with a lively atmosphere, Jonatan Giraldez’s players produced the perfect match to add a new line to their record and continue to write their impressive European history.

This third coronation, the Catalans went to get it by beating the team which until now had been their nemesis on the European scene. In four meetings, the Blaugrana have never managed to win against the Lyonnaises. They notably lost the first two finals contested between the two clubs, in 2019, and in 2022, while they arrived full of confidence to defend their first title acquired a year earlier.

“It’s the first time we’ve beaten Lyon, I’m proud of the team and we know that with the fans we have we can’t fail.”savored the first scorer and player of the match Aitana Bonmati, at the microphone of DAZN shortly after the final whistle. “They deserve it, when we see how happy they are at the end, they struggled for years, not being able to beat OL”also declared Fenottes captain Wendie Renard in the mixed zone.

In this context, it is difficult not to see a transfer of power between the eight-time European champions and the great team of recent years, which has become a modern European benchmark. If Wendie Renard did not dwell on the subject, believing that “it’s the truth of a match, the truth of a season, not the one after that”Barcelona’s success indeed has the air of a student finally at the master’s level.

This victory in the final indeed concludes an almost perfect campaign, with a draw in the last meeting of the group stage (at Benfica) and a defeat against Chelsea in London in the semi-final first leg as the only hiccups. More broadly, with this clear success, the Blaugrana won their third Champions League in four years, a sign that European domination has perhaps moved from the Rhône to Catalonia. Going back to 2019, only five years ago, we can even add two additional finals for the Blaugrana.

“The reality is that today Barcelona has just won two consecutive titles, they have a very positive dynamic, by the results, by the quality of the game they offer, but also the number of spectators that they bring them to the stadiums”explained Sonia Bompastor, the Lyon coach, at a press conference. “We will have to find ideas and reasons to counteract all this, for Lyon and for all the other clubs.” Because it is now Barça that makes the rest of Europe dream.