Not quite the player moulded in the pure Barcelona blueprint, having spent the first 17 years of her life 200 kilometres across the Balearic Sea in Palma de Mallorca rather than an idiosyncratic Catalonian suburb like La Masia graduates Aitana Bonmati (Vilanova i la Geltrú), Alexia Putellas (Mollet del Vallès) or Claudia Pina (Montcada i Reixac), Patri Guijarro had always been a player fluent in the teachings and principles of Barça.
Usually, the player to sit in the midfield pivot, mopping up mounting danger while playing neat little passes to help her team build their own attack from their celebrated midfield, Patri’s understanding of how midfield compatriots Alexia and Aitana want to play has stood her team in good stead over the years. Yet, in the afternoon sunshine in Eindhoven, it was Patri who was making a dash to the heart of the box less than three minutes into the second half to receive Graham Hansen’s cutback and divert it goalwards. It was the midfield maestro who, after scoring Barcelona’s first of the final found an equaliser just 168 seconds later, giving the Catalans not just a lifeline in the final but resurrecting a side that looked ready to be buried when they trudged in at the break.
It was that Barcelona DNA that pulsates outwards from the midfield epicentre that allowed the team to find spaces to play in and exploit from the very start of the second half, it was the style the team preached that allowed Patri to get forward and make the most of both Graham Hansen and Aitana’s pinpoint delivery. The final, as it began to drift from Wolfsburg, became the perfect example of the intoxicating football nous of the Spanish champions and the crucial mentality to overcome the biggest of hurdles and toughest of opponents. It was the understanding of how to stand on the biggest stages and not be overawed, regardless of location or opposition, and it was the mentality that Lyon had mastered that Barcelona had learned from.
When the third goal came for Barcelona, there was no surprise, no shock to the system that either of Patri’s goals carried, instead it was imminency; an expected strike and reliable as it nestled against the back of the net. Although, it was a scramble of a mess that started with Lynn Wilms kicking the ball directly into Kathrin Hendrich‘s face, it ended in the most predictable of fashions, with those in blue and scarlet wheeling away in celebration.
Ahead for the first time in 160 minutes of final action, Barcelona had to just wait out the clock, letting it tick down to their victory as Wolfsburg began to panic and lose their own composure. For the team that had won their last European title by overcoming a 3-2 deficit to Tyresö in 2014, the dread began to set in as it had for Barca in the first half, their season riddled with narrow escapes, the reality of a title thrown away began to take hold for the She Wolves.
For two teams who had both tasted misery on the biggest European stage multiple times, there was only ever going to be joy for one, but with defeat snatched from the jaws of victory the pill was sour and unexpected hard to swallow for Wolfsburg. For Barcelona and the players who lined up against Lyon last year, as well as those who were present for their first final outing in 2019, the victory that could never have been possible had it not been for their past failures made this all the sweeter. The new chapter in their history turning the page on women’s football in Europe, promising a new story and a new dynasty.
