Normalizing the extraordinary. On the grass and in the stands. Barça has started a new reign in Europe after showing the world that, in addition to football, they now have the mentality of a champion team. The blaugrana are required not only to win, but to destroy. A huge weight to carry on your back. That is why the image of the grass at the Philips Stadion as soon as the final whistle sounded was liberating. Even Irene Paredes, one of the toughest in the locker room, burst into tears when she hugged her wife and little Mateo. "My whole family has come. They know what it is to reach the finals and lose them ”, she confessed excitedly. The one from Legazpi also looked for Vero Boquete, in Eindhoven as a television commentator and partner of Paredes at PSG in the final that they lost in 2017, and they melted into an emotional hug. After losing again against Lyon in Turin, this time with Barça, the third time was the charm.
The blaugrana shook off the heavy burden of Turin and reconciled with a hobby to which they felt indebted. Each one expressed this liberation in her own way. Aitana Bonmatí, full of joy, carrying around a giant FC Barcelona shield that she had stolen from the stadium and which she took to the airport; Keira Walsh, dying her hair as a blaugrana to celebrate that in a year she has gone from being eliminated from the Champions League with City to being proclaimed European champion... As many celebrations as realities of a dressing room that has known how to believe in its possibilities, even without the best player in the world. An Alexia Putellas who, although she barely had minutes in the final, was finally able to lift her first European trophy as captain after overcoming her knee injury. A golden brooch for a Barça that closes the wounds of Turin.
The epic comeback against Wolfsburg, unthinkable a year ago, could be a before and after for Barça. A team that since the last final has grown above all in mental strength and that without Alexia has been able to find other records that make it a much more dangerous team. Ingredients that, seasoned with the maturity that comes from having reached four finals in the last five years, are the key to understanding the success of a Barça that could become a legend.
"We had a déjà-vu, but the sensations were not the same", the soccer players agreed after beating Wolfsburg. Today they are a much more solid team than the one that fell to Lyon, also outside of football. After having won a Champions League behind closed doors due to the pandemic, Turin was the first mass bath for a Barça that had just filled the Camp Nou twice. An expectation unknown until then by a dressing room that had a hard time managing the emotional part, especially when they had been presented as favorites and the game went uphill in the first minutes. Barça was erased from the game and the feeling of having failed their fans stuck in the depths of the soccer players. In Eindhoven the sensations in the hours before the final had nothing to do with those in Turin. There were no triumphant greetings from the hotel balcony or anything that smacked of overconfidence.
Mental management has been one of the most important pieces that have been worked on this season with the club's psychologist. A job that has borne fruit with a much more confident squad capable of transforming the pressure of wanting to reward the fans with encouragement to use as gasoline. The patience of the club over the years has also been vital in this successful stage, maintaining the commitment when the results have not been good. It was done in 2015, when the titles were slow to arrive after professionalizing the section, and it was believed again after falling in Turin against Lyon. "The club's investment in recent seasons and the attitude of the players to continue improving and growing have this result," said coach Jonatan Giráldez. In a club threatened by cuts, the women's section now hopes not to suffer from the delicate economic situation. "It will not affect the growth of the team," pointed out the institutional vice president Elena Fort in RAC1. For the blaugrana entity, "the women's is a strategic project of the club and it will continue to be so", added the head of the section, the manager Xavi Puig.
The defeat in Budapest marked the level that had to be reached; the title in Göteborg was a confidence boost; the Turin debacle, a reality check; Eindhoven represents the consolidation of the team in the European elite and who knows if the beginning of a new dynasty.
