By Efosa Taiwo
Barcelona Femeni will be looking at putting behind them the disappointment of losing last season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League final to Lyon when they take on Wolfsburg on Saturday.
Super Falcons forward, Asisat Oshoala, who was a doubt for the showdown after picking up a hamstring injury, made the team’s traveling squad that landed stylishly in Eindhoven on Thursday.
Speaking ahead of the clash, captain Alexia Putellas, who has had her season blighted by a long-term knee injury, said last season’s “traumatic” women’s Champions League final defeat will drive the team on to lift the trophy for the second time against Wolfsburg.
Recovering just in time for the clash, the two-time Ballon d’Or winner is in the race to lead the frontline for the team with coach Jonatan Giraldez saying she could play the whole game if required.
Putellas was sidelined for most of the season with a knee injury which she sustained last summer ahead of the women’s European Championship, and is yet to start a match since.
The Spaniard scored her first goal of the season on her fifth substitute appearance, on the last day of Barcelona’s triumphant league campaign.
“You always have to manage (the pressure), when you put on this shirt, you know what it means — you have to reach perfection,” Putellas told a news conference in Eindhoven on Friday.
“We’re affected a lot by the Turin game, with all the fans that went. We had the worst match of the season, we feel like we owe them a Champions League.”
She continued: “It was traumatic, we worked hard to win the final and it couldn’t be. Now, however, it’s more motivation to go out there and bring the cup back to Barcelona.”
An excited Giraldez confirmed the availability of his talisman Putellas but managed to evade disclosing whether or not she will make his starting line-up.
“Alexia is ready to play like all of them, 90 minutes, or 120 minutes, she is totally available,” Barcelona coach Giraldez said.
One of the positions in the team which has been less settled this season is the central striker spot in the middle of an attacking front three.
Oshoala and Geyse Ferreira are vying for the position, while Giraldez also said Putellas could be used there as a false nine.
“It’s an option — the other day we did a test and we think she could give us something extra inside the area,” he explained.
“In the final third, she makes the difference.”
On her part, Oshoala, in an interview with the Champions League website, shared the experience of winning the Champions League with Barcelona in 2021.
She said, “My goodness, when we won the Champions League [in 2021] of course! Winning the Champions League is amazing.”
The 28-year-old conceded it will be a more exhilirating experience to win it again.
She added, “You can imagine how it’s going to be in five years’ time; it’s going to be so, so amazing.
“You’re going to have really amazing sponsorship, you’re going to have such big media outlets who want to invest in this competition.
Barcelona have now reached four of the last five Champions League finals, beating Chelsea in the semi-final to book their ticket to Eindhoven.
Explosive winger Caroline Graham Hansen, who scored in both legs of the win over the Blues, played for Wolfsburg between 2014 and 2019, losing two Champions League finals against Lyon with the German side.
“For me it’s special, I was there for five years,” she told a news conference.
“The only thing I want is to win tomorrow. They are a great team, with a lot of quality.”
Source: Vanguard