Barcelona, Lyon battling for status as Europe’s powerhouse

When Barcelona stepped out onto the pitch at the Groupama Arena three years ago in Budapest for their first UEFA Women’s Champions League final, they were the unfavoured team, expected to be no match for Olympique Lyonnais. The narrative was set: the European juggernaut (Lyon) was clashing with the new kid on the block (Barcelona) who had to learn from their mistakes. The match played out as if it were following the same script.

Star Lyon midfielder Dzsenifer Marozsán opened the score just five minutes in, delighting the crowd in the city of her birth, and from there Barcelona began to fold into themselves with each subsequent goal. The Catalans were no slouches, but Lyon’s precision play made them look like amateurs as, time and time again that evening, the Barcelona defence was ripped wide open.

Then-manager Lluís Cortés later suggested that simply reaching the final was Barcelona’s reward at the end of the Champions League gauntlet, a comment that seems to help explain Barcelona’s poor performance, a 4-1 loss to Lyon that never really felt in doubt.

That was then. The feeling around Barcelona now could not be more different as they embark on Saturday’s Champions League final in a very different place. Seven-time champions Lyon remain a powerhouse and not a side to discount, but since Barcelona’s loss in 2019, the Catalan side has forged its way and upset the power balance in Europe. The path for each side to Turin’s final this weekend was markedly different, but both will feel they have something to prove in securing the European title.

The two years following Barcelona’s 2019 humiliation were perhaps the most important yet for the Blaugranes. Propelled by the disappointment of that loss to Lyon, they strengthened both on and off the pitch to finally regain the Spanish title in the truncated 2019-20 season after five years without the trophy. A successive title followed as Barcelona really began to flex their muscles, and their rise to the top of the…