Barcelona women prepare for comeback against Chelsea in Champions League

Barcelona’s women’s team faced Chelsea with a mission to overcome the draw and reach the Champions League final.

Barcelona’s women’s team will face a major challenge this Saturday in London. For the first time this season they will have to bounce back from a draw after Chelsea beat them in Montjuic if they are to defend their Champions League title in Bilbao.

But from the dressing room this is not perceived as a task bordering on the impossible. “This is not the most difficult test, because last year we had to score two goals against Wolfsburg in the final… And in the middle,” Barca coach Jonathan Giraldes recalled at a press conference before the match. at Stamford Bridge, conveying the feeling of a team unaccustomed to playing this level of football on the pitch but confident of their chances of turning the tide of a semi-final.

A year ago in the same match, Barça beat Chelsea 0-1 in the then first leg, a result that would have resulted in a penalty shootout that, being a novelty, would not have put the Spanish champion against the grain. because “We have been rehearsing penalties all season,” as Giraldes stated and demonstrated the level of preparation with which his team works at all levels.

Two draws and one defeat after 39 official matches are an impressive statistic for Barça, which scored 168 goals (average 4.3) and barely conceded 17 (0.4), dominating the League with an iron fist, whose fifth consecutive title can be mathematically won in two days, having already won the Super Cup and are the overwhelming favorites for the Queen’s Cup final, which will face Real Sociedad on May 18.

By then they may have settled on the domestic treble, with their sights set on the Champions League final if they decide to draw with Chelsea for the perfect season for a team looking to enter the women’s legend of world football with gold letters. .

“We have to play well and be strong mentally, but what is clear is that we will be true to our personality because Barça is a team that always goes to play,” Giraldes consciously decided, even if he was removed from the scene. that at Stamford Bridge his team would not only play the most uncomfortable match of the season, but that they would do it in a stadium full and with a very tense atmosphere in favor of Chelsea.