The perfect season that Barça has had to date does not count. Gone are the Spanish Super Cup, the League title and the 39 wins in 39 games that the Catalans have this season. The reality today is different: Barça faces Wolfsburg in the first leg of the semifinals of the Women’s Champions League knowing that nothing that has been done brings them closer to their great goal. That he will have to win on the pitch against the German champion his qualification for the final in Turin on May 21 in a tie that promises to be exciting.
The players trained by Jonatan Giráldez want to make use of their combination game and their multiple offensive resources to overcome a rival they have never beaten and that he will try to counteract the control of the ball by culé with vertiginous counterattacks and a more direct game. Tap against speed. Whoever imposes his plan will have a lot of cattle. It is true that this Barça has little to do with the one that fell two years ago in a single-game semifinal tie and that took Wolfsburg with a goal from Rolfö after wasting countless scoring chances. Barça looks even less like the team that faced VfL in 2014 in a year in which Kessler, Fischer, Müller and company lifted the European title.
As Aitana Bonmatí said this week, “this Barça is more mature, a winning team” and that has changed a lot since then. “We are a very flexible team: we know how to find solutions to all the problems that we have been encountering,” Rolfö supported in an interview with this newspaper. Being able to achieve this will be key in this Friday’s duel, in which Barça will not vary too much in the eleven compared to the team that defeated Real Madrid at the Camp Nou. This means that Rolfö can return to occupy the left lane and Claudia Pina, already recovered, will help the ball circulate between the lines starting as a false extreme left foot. Patri Guijarro will return to eleven after the physical problems that have kept her out for 20 dayswhile Mariona and Oshoala, already recovered after almost two months of absence, would wait their turn on the bench heading into the second half.
The German team is also different, but its ‘transition year’ within a project that bets on youth, continues to be just as reliable and the results prove it. They have been able to combine that growth as a team with good results and, at this point in the season, they can still dream of the treble with players like Wassmuth, -Champions top scorer- Pajor or Roord, although a key player like Lena Oberdorf will miss the tie due to injury. His place in the eleven will be occupied by Popp, while the only doubt will be in attack, where Stroot will have to decide whether to bet on Jonsdottir on the wing and Wassmuth up, or bet on Ewa Pajor instead of one of these two attackers.
The ‘Camp Nou effect’
The constellation of stars that will gather on the lawn of the Camp Nou will do so surrounded by nearly 90,000 spectators who will once again dress the stands of the Barça Coliseum in a gala. The culé fans responded against Real Madrid, had a great time and want to repeat in the semi-finals after the ‘no tickets’ sign was hung up again.
The recommendations of the FC Barcelona of access to the Camp Nou for the FC Barcelona – Wolfsburg
| FCB
If the weather is good and all those who have bought tickets come to the stadium, the atmosphere can once again be spectacular and essential to bring Barça closer to the Champions League final. Having lived that experience once should also help the Barça players, who hope that this environment can also affect the Wolfsburg players, who have not had the opportunity to experience something like this in their career.