The Camp Nou is preparing to reopen its doors to Jonatan Giráldez's team. After opening last year on this stage (against Real Madrid and Wolfsburg) with two world attendance records, the Barça temple will once again host a women's Champions League match. And it will do so against Bayern Munich, the only rival that has been able to beat the Catalans this year. He did it in preseason, when he won the Amos Women's French Cup (1-2), although Giráldez expects a very different duel today: "We have improved our version a lot, especially defensively and we are in a good moment, with the players performing at a high level”.
It will not be easy against a rival that arrives at the Camp Nou plugged in after beating Duisburg (0-7) in the Pokal. The German team has only lost one game this year in the Bundeliga (2-1 against Wolfsburg) and has not known defeat in the Champions League. "It's very chameleonic," Giráldez warned in the previous one: "It's a team that adapts very well to different scenarios and with many collective strengths."
It is a strong team with high-quality players like Schüller, Laurent, Bühl, Magull or Saki Kumagai. Arriving this summer from Manchester City, Georgia Stanway is one of the stars of Alexander Straus' team. Current European champion with England, hers was the goal in extra time that eliminated Spain from the Euro Cup. She also bears her signature the agonizing comeback of the team against Benfica in the debut in the Champions League this season. Bayern started losing (2-0) to the Portuguese, but after Rall closed the gap, Stanway capped off the German comeback with a double.
Bayern and Barça arrive at the event with plenty of victories, including the biggest European win to date, the 9-0 opening at the Johan against Benfica. Until today they have met twice in official matches, in the semifinals of the 2018/19 season, with two wins by the minimum for the Catalans, who then sealed their first ticket to a Champions League final – which they would end up losing (4 -1) against Lyon in Budapest-.
At Barça, Giráldez recovers key players from the team such as Aitana Bonmatí and Lucy Bronze, who were left out of the last league game "as a precaution", but they will be available this afternoon. He also received yesterday the young Emma Ramírez, who had physical discomfort since September. In the casualty chapter, the coach from Vigo will not be able to count on Mariona Caldentey, who continues to have problems with her biceps femoris, nor on the long-term injured Alexia Putellas, Cata Coll and Jana Fernàndez. Bruna Vilamala, already recovered from the rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament, is indeed in the squad for this match, although Giráldez warns that "making him play 90 minutes would be sacrilege."
The duel against Bayern at the Camp Nou will be the prelude to another great game, the one that the Catalans will play at the Metropolitano on Sunday (4:30 p.m.) against Atlético: “Now a very intense week begins, but it's what we like, This competitive requirement is what motivates us”, pointed out Patri Guijarro in the previous one.
The Camp Nou will be quite a party. In addition to the large number of people expected, with more than 50,000 tickets sold, the club has organized a wide range of activities on the stadium esplanade. The doors will open at 5:15 p.m., an hour and a half before the start of the match, and anyone who arrives on time at the field will be able to enjoy musical entertainment and games. The club has installed basketball, futsal and curling courts, but the highlight will be the 'tobogol', a slide down which you can slide on giant donuts. All of this enlivened by various DJs and cultural shows by groups from the city. Once inside the field, two speakers and the local DJ Trap Ella will be in charge of animating the party until the soccer players take over the show.
