In Frankfurt, the press was warming up before the match, remembering the heroic feat of the men's team last year, when it eliminated Xavi Hernández's Barça from the Europa League. With hopes of repeating the feat, more than 16,000 people came to the Waldstadion on a freezing night. And the Eintracht fans dreamed of Laura Freigang's header that put the German team ahead before the break. But the current champion turned the score around (1-3) as soon as the second half started with a double from Salma Paralluelo and a goal from Mariona Caldentey.
Frankfurt was the first winner of the Women's Champions League in its first edition in 2002 and with four European titles it is the second most successful, only behind Lyon. When it won its last Champions League, back in 2015, Barça had just professionalized its women's section. An opposite path then began for German and Catalan women. The Blaugrana team reached their first European final just four years later and today they already have two trophies under their belt. Frankfurt began a descent into hell until three years ago when it merged with Eintracht. Today, the model to follow is that of the Blaugrana. “Playing against Barça means a lot to me. I have been a fan since I was little and it excites me,” Eintracht's young forward Lara Prasnikar confessed in the preview, unable to hold back a tear before one of the most important games of her career. Hers was Eintracht's first shot on the goal of Sandra Paños, who started for the first time this season in the Champions League due to Cata Coll's last-minute loss with gastroenteritis. The only change in an eleven copied from Sunday's classic in Montjuïc (5-0).
After the first quarter of an hour, Barça began to have its first chances in a start of Blaugrana dominance but with little rhythm. She created chances, but they were too easy for the German goalkeeper. For their part, Eintracht had very clear ideas when they recovered the ball and sought to surprise with a shot from Freigang and a shot from Anyomi that Paños expertly avoided. But in the 42nd minute he could not prevent Freigang's header, finishing alone in the area, from slipping into the back of the net and leaving the Blaugrana frozen.
Fortunately, Giráldez's team came out with a higher gear after the break and turned the score around with three goals in ten minutes. Salma Paralluelo, not very precise on the day of the classic, made up for it with a double and Mariona Caldentey extended her love affair with the goal with a new goal, her hundredth in the Blaugrana shirt, taking advantage of a rebound.
Eintracht did not give up on the game and continued trying to surprise Paños on the counterattack, especially with Freigang and Anyomi, and they were about to succeed when the Alicante goalkeeper lost the ball from her hands, but the scoreboard would not move any further.
A triumph with which he remains the undefeated leader of his group and with which he breaks the curse in German lands. Barça had lost in their last two visits to Germany and here were two of their last three defeats in the Champions League. The most recent, the season in the group stage against Bayern (3-1) and the previous year against Wolfsburg (2-0).
