Graham Hansen playing at home<\/a>, the redemption of a team much criticized during the season, or the demonstration that sentiment can win over money.<\/p>\nBut the Oslo final will also be remembered for breaking two curses. Ewa Pajor was able to celebrate her first Champions League after having lost the five previous finals she had played \u2013four with Wolfsburg and one with Bar\u00e7a\u2013. The Polish forward, with a brace in the final, became the top scorer of the season with eleven goals. Since 2017-18, it had been eight seasons since the top scorer of the Champions League was not from the competition’s winning team.<\/p>\n
Cata Coll saves Bar\u00e7a<\/p>\n
Bar\u00e7a started the match with a lot of nerves. It was hard to recognize Pere Romeu’s team \u2013 very imprecise in passing \u2013 against an Olympique Lyonnais that showed its dominance through very physical play that the blaugranes players suffered, among them Clara Serrajordi, who at just 18 years old was a starter in a Champions League final. All this in her first season with the Bar\u00e7a first team.<\/p>\n
The first chance of the match, however, was for the blaugrana team after an individual play by Graham Hansen that ended with a shot by Alexia Putellas directly wide, a few centimeters from the goal defended by Endler. Despite this, the atmosphere was cold. The 4,000 Bar\u00e7a fans colored part of the stands of a full Ullevaal stadium (24,258 spectators), from where they tried to be the twelfth player.<\/p>\n
Pere Romeu’s team never really got comfortable, and Lyon \u2013 who also didn’t have a great game \u2013 gave the blaugranes a warning. Cata Coll \u2013 the best of the Catalans in the first half \u2013 saved the 0-1 with a great save to prevent Renard’s goal, who had headed in a free-kick taken by Bacha. The Balearic goalkeeper couldn’t stop Heaps’ shot, but the American player was offside. Bar\u00e7a was saved.<\/p>\n
It would not be the only time Cata Coll would be providential throughout the final. The Mallorcan also stopped Bacha’s free-kick with a great stretch and held up very well in a one-on-one with Ada Hegerberg, despite the action being disallowed for offside by the Norwegian forward. Alexia Putellas also worked in defense to prevent Hegerberg’s goal after a cross from Jule Brand.<\/p>\n
Ewa Pajor brace to defeat Lyon<\/p>\n
Bar\u00e7a went from more to less in the final \u2013just like the fans, who also knew how to play their part by cheering on the team when it needed it most\u2013. Ewa Pajor tried to take advantage of a moment of disconnection from the French defense \u2013center-back Renard and goalkeeper Endler did not understand each other\u2013 with a lob in front of Endler’s poor exit, but the ball went wide.<\/p>\n
She was not accurate in the first half, but the Polish forward \u2013who until this Saturday in Oslo had not won any Champions League\u2013 was responsible for putting the first goal on the scoreboard after a pass from Patri Guijarro. Pajor beat Endler with a cross shot in front of the euphoria of the thousands of culers who traveled to Oslo, \u2013despite the logistical problems to get to Norway.<\/p>\n
But Olympique Lyonnais didn’t make it easy at all, as just a few minutes after Bar\u00e7a’s goal, they managed to equalize. First, with a shot from Becho that Cata once again saved with a great hand, and later with another one-on-one situation \u2013 this time with Chawinga \u2013 which the Balearic goalkeeper once again stopped.<\/p>\n
And it was Pajor again who was chosen to score the second goal and bring Bar\u00e7a closer to their fourth Champions League. A counter-attack from Bar\u00e7a \u2013 which knew how to adapt to the game’s script \u2013 ended with a cross from Brugts to the far post, where Salma combined with Pajor amidst the absolute euphoria of the blaugranes, which became total with the third and fourth goals from Salma Paralluelo.<\/p>\n
Graham Hansen was able to receive a great ovation at home while Bar\u00e7a was close to a new Women’s Champions League. The Blaugranas \u2013led by Pere Romeu\u2013 gave a lesson to the entire football world. With a short squad, with homegrown players like Clara Serrajordi, a starter in the final, and with injuries, they were able to defeat a team built on money. Bar\u00e7a defeated Olympique Lyon, managed by Jonatan Gir\u00e1ldez and Michele Kang \u2013 who for the first time since lifting their first Champions League in 2011 will go four years without lifting one \u2013 and are once again the best team in Europe.<\/p>\n
Bar\u00e7a: Cata Coll; Ona Batlle, Irene Paredes, Mapi Le\u00f3n, Esmee Brugts (A\u00efcha, 85\u2019), Clara Serrajordi (Aitana, 72\u2019), Patri Guijarro, Alexia Putellas (Kika, 85\u2019), Graham Hansen (Claudia Pina, 62′), Ewa Pajor and Salma Paralluelo. Coach: Pere Romeu.Olympique Lyon: Christiane Endler; Ashley Lawrence, Wendie Renard, Ingrid Engen, Selma Bacha, Lindsey Heaps, Melchie Dumornay, Lily Yohannes (Shrader, 72\u2019); Vicki Becho (Chawinga, 66′), Ada Hegerberg (Katoto, 66′) and Jule Brand. Coach: Jonatan Gir\u00e1ldez.Goals: 1-0 Ewa Pajor (55′), 2-0 Ewa Pajor (69′), 3-0 Salma Paralluelo (90\u2019) and 4-0 Salma Paralluelo (90+3\u2019).Yellow cards: Alexia Putellas (68′), Dumornay (73\u2019) and Cata Coll (88\u2019)Red cards: None.Referee: Tess Olofsson (Sweden) and Bram Van Driessche (Belgium) at VAR.Stadium: Ullevaal. 24,258 spectators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OsloThere are scripts that seem to be written. And this Champions League’s could only have one winner: Bar\u00e7a.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[85],"tags":[47835,37678,25714,47834,1968,216,20047,29683,157,156],"class_list":["post-90688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oslo","tag-afternoon","tag-barca","tag-champions","tag-crazy","tag-fourth","tag-in","tag-league","tag-lifts","tag-norway","tag-oslo"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116625605126981718","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}