MATCH PREVIEW: FC Barcelona Women v Olympique Lyonnais Féminin
FC Barcelona finally won their first ever UEFA Women’s Champions League last season, and they are just one match away from doing it again! At the Juventus Stadium, Turin on Saturday at 7.00pm CEST, just one thing stands between them and the trophy… Olympique Lyonnais.
But it won’t be easy. Barça may be the defending champions, but the French side have won this tournament a record seven times, including an amazing five in a row from 2016 to 2020. In the three previous competitive meetings between the sides, Lyon have won every time, including a 4-1 victory in the 2019 final in Budapest. It’s time to change history!
Other than a 2-0 defeat to Wolfsburg in the semi-final second leg, a result that was still enough to ensure 5-3 aggregate victory, the Barça women have won every single fixture in this extraordinary season, including twice breaking the world record attendance for a women’s football match when they played two momentous games at Camp Nou.
A huge number of Barça fans are expected to be present for this game, which will make things very different to last year, when Covid-19 meant that the club’s first ever victory happened in an empty stadium.
Did you know?
Barça have used 25 different players en route to Turin. Swedish forward Fridolina Rolfö is the only member of the squad to have played in all ten games.
No team can match the 37 goals that Barça have scored in the competition. PSG come closest with 32 and Lyon are third with 28. The Catalans also kept clean sheet in half of their ten games.
Barça also lead the UWCL in possession (66.3%), passing accuracy (88.7%) and shots on goal (284).
Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas is joint top goalscorer in the competition along with Tabea Waßmuth of Wolfsburg (10 each). Lyon’s top scorer is US international Catarina Macario with seven.
Selma Bacha of Lyon leads the UWCL for assists (8), followed by Rolfö in second (6).
Nine of the Barça squad could play in what would be their third European final: Paños, Torrejón, Mapi León, Leila, Aitana, Alexia, Martens, Mariona and Oshoala.
