cried Alexia. She cried inconsolably after lying on the grass of the Juventus stadium trying to find a football explanation for the same problem they experienced two years ago. So, in 2019, it happened in Budapest. Yesterday, in 2022, it happened in Turin.
“It’s difficult to analyze the game when it’s hot”, admitted the current Ballon d’Or, still trapped, like all her teammates, by that strange feeling of impotence that made Barça useless. Alexia cried, while Aitana Bonmatí, as soon as she picked up the runner-up medal, looked proudly at the television camera, just as the president Joan Laporta announced that “they would return”.
But while that moment arrives, the self-criticism spread because the team, especially in the initial half hour (it conceded three goals in 33 minutes), collapsed with a crash. “In the first part it cost us a lot,” admitted Alexia, in a harsh exercise of self-criticism. “We have had mistakes that we don’t usually have. Too many errors in the pass, too many losses…”, said the Barça player.
❝We can’t donate to our fans the joy that is deserved❞
Jonathan Giraldez pic.twitter.com/nyINw0xTbz
– FC Barcelona Femení (@FCBfemeni) May 21, 2022
“This should serve to improve because next year we want to return, it has not been our best game. The keys have been in us,” added Sandra Paños, the goalkeeper, joining that long series of mistakes denounced by Alexia.
Jonathan disagrees
“The first goal is a great goal, we had worked on the second,” said the footballer from Mollet, recalling that Olympique’s attack down the left wing was not solved as it should have been, neither at the beginning nor in the final header of Ada Hegerbergwhich flew over the small area of Paños, while Mapi Leon and Irene Paredesthe Barça centrals, could not dismantle this French action.
“The third is a goal that we cannot score in a Champions League final,” said Alexia hurt, who did find an argument to have a justification for those 33 minutes where Barça collapsed with a crash in Turin.
“The assessment is that no matter how much we train, we need this competitive rhythm. And we don’t have this rhythm in our League”
Alexia Putellas, Barça player
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“The assessment is that no matter how much we train, we need this competitive rhythm. And we don’t have this rhythm in our League,” argued Alexia. “It’s a matter of time, of pushing everyone together, improving all the infrastructures to have that rhythm. Something must change,” said the soccer player, referring to the low “domestic” level as one of the causes of the fall. “They are stronger, they anticipate”, she underlined in a current that she disagreed with Jonathan Giraldez, His trainer. “If the rival is stronger than you, you must play faster to avoid those situations of duel”, specified the Barça coach.
“Without excuses”
Barça did not govern the match with its style. Olympique dominated in that furious half hour, with an exercise in impressive efficiency: three first shots on goal, three goals. It was as if the disaster of Budapest-2019 were lived where the azulgranas received a cruel 4-0 in 30 minutes. “There are no excuses. These are experiences that you have to take, this is sport,” said Jonatan. “It is a reality, we have to move forward,” Alexia pointed out. “It has hurt my heart to see them so sad,” confessed Laporta. “But we will return,” added the president, while the team returns home tormented because Turin was Budapest.