BARCELONA, 13 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça Femení receives Benfica this Tuesday at the Estadi Johan Cruyff (9:00 p.m.) in the debut of the current champion of the Women’s Champions League in a new European season, after being crowned the best team of last year and adding that golden touch to that of the Ballon d’Or for Aitana Bonmatí, successor to Alexia Putellas and both still being the spearheads of the Catalan team.
After the celebrations for that Ballon d’Or and collective recognition of the team and the club, and after a great start in the F League with full victories in the first eight days, it is time to open a new episode in the ‘UEFA Women’s’ Champions League’ and it’s time to do it against a Benfica, already known, who has prepared to exact revenge.
With almost the entire team complete, Barça Femení wants the first taste of this new ‘Champions’ to taste like triumph, glory, and being able to repeat the success of last year and three editions ago. At Barça they want the second consecutive Champions League but in the locker room they don’t think about it but about beating Benfica and opening this Group A on the right path in the incipient group stage.
Jonatan Giráldez, who will complete one hundred games as coach of the Blaugrana first team, asked in the preview to focus on the game by game and not start thinking now, when the ‘Champions’ ball has not yet started to roll, in that possible second consecutive title, which would be the third in the Blaugrana’s record after the successes of 2021 against Chelsea and 2023 against Wolfsburg.
“Two consecutive years? It’s not another plus, because we are only at the beginning of the competition. We don’t have to think about the title but about the first game, at the beginning,” defended the Blaugrana coach in the preview of this clash. .
A match in which Balearic midfielder Patri Guijarro can be in if Giráldez so wishes, already available for this Tuesday after overcoming her discomfort. Despite training with the group, the Catalan forward Bruna Vilamala will not yet be in the team, joining the absences of Fridolina Rolfö and Jana Fernández.
The rival will be a Benfica that will try to surprise, which would be capital. And last year they already met in the group stage and Barça, at the Johan, won 9-0 with up to seven different scorers, the European record for the Catalan club. In the second leg, in Lisbon, Giráldez’s team qualified for the quarterfinals thanks to a 2-6.
LAST GOLDEN PARTY
The Estadi Johan Cruyff, which will present a good entrance, will be the scene of the last Blaugrana party for the golden FIFA celebration. In front of its fans, the club has paid a final tribute to the women’s team for the award received at the Ballon d’Or gala that proclaims the group as the best women’s team in the world in 2023.
The tribute, which will take place before the start of the match, will have a preview enlivened to the rhythm of a DJ and with games and activities for fans of all ages in the stands and on the video scoreboard of the ‘culer’ stadium, where Giráldez’s team will begin the defense of the continental title.
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