With her contract running down at Manchester City last season, England right-back Lucy Bronze had her pick of clubs. There was interest from clubs in Europe and America’s top flight, the NWSL, but she was very clear with her agent: only the best of the best. For Bronze, that meant Lyon or Barcelona, last season’s two Champions League finalists.
Bronze had already played for Lyon earlier in her career, winning three Champions Leagues and FIFA’s The Best Women’s Player Award during her time in France, so this time she opted for Barca. Domestically, Jonatan Giraldez’s side, who lost to Lyon in last season’s Champions League final, have quite literally been unbeatable. They have won 42 matches in a row in Liga F and have lifted the last three league titles.
Barcelona finished top by 24 points last term and were 30 clear of Real Madrid, although there are signs to suggest that gap may not be so big this season. Madrid’s improvement has been rapid — they have not yet beaten Barca, but they have quickly established themselves just below the top ring of clubs in Europe. They have knocked Man City out of the Champions League two years running to make the group stages and reached the quarterfinals last season, losing to Barca in front of a world record crowd at Camp Nou.
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Real Madrid invested again in the summer, and among those brought in has been Scotland international Caroline Weir, Bronze’s former City teammate. They have four points from two European games this season, including a goalless draw against heavyweights Paris Saint-Germain, and are unbeaten in Liga F, five points behind Barca with a game in hand.
ESPN: Has that surprised you?
Bronze: I expected training and the players to be good, I had played against all of them for Barca or Spain, but it still surprised me, the level, how high it was at. I was at Lyon, the level was high, but the intensity here, it did surprise me that it was so high.
ESPN: And the depth of the talent here, have you seen that before?
Bronze: Lyon was good for developing youth like Selma Bacha, I think she was 18 when I was there, there were a couple of them. The difference at Barca is there are 100s of them. There are just like clones and clones and clones of these amazing technical, intelligent players. We had a game [on Thursday] night where we put on three or four kids so we could rest players. In preseason, we had half the younger players come with us and the level did not drop. That’s something I don’t think I have seen before and certainly not in England. That’s credit to the methodology of the training in Barcelona.
ESPN: How has Liga F compared to the Women’s Super League and criticism that it’s a one-team league?
I think it was the same in Lyon. Lyon were that good that it was hard for the other teams to compete. It’s the same in Spain. From the outside, people talk and say the other teams are not good, but I have been pleasantly surprised at the level of some of the teams. And it’s tough for them, but we have such a good squad at Barca. It’s not just our XI, we can rotate. And to be honest, that’s kind of what’s happening in England. People say ‘Oh Barca always win’ or ‘Lyon always win,’ well, Chelsea have always won the league in England yet an English team has not won the Champions League for years and years. Barca and Lyon have.
It depends how you look at it. Lyon won the Champions League so many times but they dominated their domestic league as well because they were that good. It’s the same with Barca, they were that good that they could dominate domestically and win the Champions League. If you want to win the Champions League, you probably will be dominating domestically. That is what it takes to compete at the highest level in the Champions League. That is what I have seen from being in Lyon, being in Spain, being in England. That is the level it takes to be that successful and be known as that team that’s the best, as Barca and Lyon have been known for.
ESPN: How do you see the Champions League this season?
Bronze: I think it’s still early days. Lyon’s start especially is purely down to injuries. It is crazy the amount of long-term injuries they have got. They could make another XI with the players that are missing and these players are unbelievable, the likes of Marozsan, Mbock, Hegerberg… It’s difficult for them, but if they get those players back, and qualify, they will be a big threat.
We have done well, we are still improving, getting our style back and also have players injured, Caro, Alexia, who will hopefully come back second half of the season. Chelsea have done reasonably well, PSG have done OK, Bayern Munich are a top team, Wolfsburg are a top team. It will be tough for whoever gets to the final, we want to get there and lift the trophy. We have what it takes but you never know in football. There are a lot of teams that probably think they have a good chance this year.
