A final to forget another final

The Champions League final doesn't close out the women 's club season. After the national team matches in the Nations League, the women have returned to the discipline of their teams because this Saturday in Huesca they will close the curtain on the Copa de la Reina. A final in which Barcelona will try to dry the tears of Lisbon , forget the disappointment , and close the season with another celebration. Smiles that would crystallize, with the eleventh Copa del Rey, another national treble after already securing the fifth Super Cup and the tenth La Liga title.

"It's been strange to take a hard blow and not be able to reunite with your team," Salma Paralluelo confessed. "The national team, however, has allowed us to think about football again," the forward said, considering the forced shift in focus they experienced.

While Atlético has been thinking for almost three weeks

“Losing a final, the most important match of the year, hurts, and there has to be a process of acceptance, but if you start training, join the national team, and play good matches, it helps you move on. But if you think about the football aspect, we would have liked more time to prepare for the final,” coach Pere Romeu complained about the break between one final and the next.

There was a time, before Real Madrid created its women's team, when the most fiercely contested classic was Barça vs. Atlético Madrid . The Blaugrana signed Mapi León from the Atlético Madrid club in the summer of 2017. It was the first time a transfer fee was paid for a female player (€50,000). This is a testament to the commitment the Barcelona club made, which has led to its current dominance.

The team is tired, but it's the last game, it's a final, and there's no excuse." Pere Romeu Coach of Barcelona

So, the left-footed centre-back from Aragon, who turns 30 next week, packed her bags to join Alexia Putellas , Hermoso, Mariona, Losada and Paños and changed the course of the history of Spanish women's football, also joining the first steps of Patri Guijarro and Aitana Bonmatí who were just beginning their incipient, now unstoppable careers.

“It's an all-powerful Barça,” says Atlético goalkeeper Lola Gallardo, who knows some key players in the Blaugrana dressing room well. “They're hurt about not winning the Champions League. But I know they're ambitious and will want to shake off that bad memory,” admits Gallardo, who lifted the Cup in 2023.

"After a blow, it's strange not to get together, but the national team has started thinking about football again." Salma Paralluelo Barcelona Forward

The two current champions of the tournament face each other at El Alcoraz, but their paths couldn't be more contrasting. Barcelona handed a crushing 8-0 to Real Sociedad a year ago, while two years ago, Atlético Madrid defeated Real Madrid on penalties in an edition in which the Barcelona players were disqualified due to an improper lineup by Geyse .

But the rift between the two has widened over time, separating them. Barça have won their last ten head-to-head matches, scoring 38 goals, six of them in April at the Johan Cruyff Stadium (6-0). Atlético, who have gone six matches without scoring, have not defeated Barcelona for four years (June 1, 2021), when they defeated a team 4-3 in Alcalá de Henares that was already the league champion and had just won the Champions League for the first time in Gothenburg. But a final is always different, and the Colchoneras have Arsenal in Lisbon as their example.

I know many of the Barcelona players. They're hurt about not winning the Champions League, but I know they're ambitious and will want to shake off that bad memory. Lola Gallardo, Atlético Madrid goalkeeper

Preparation for the final hasn't been easy for Pere Romeu's coaching staff, who were left without their international players, only getting them back on Thursday. On Tuesday, the Spanish national team finished the Spain-England match with eight Blaugrana players on the Cornellà pitch when Jana Fernández replaced Real Madrid's Olga Carmona. Furthermore, not all of them arrived healthy because Rolfö sprained her ankle against Sweden and is out. Meanwhile, his Atlético Madrid counterpart, Víctor Martín, lost fewer players in training and has been thinking about the Cup final for over two weeks. "If the team arrives tired, they arrive tired, but it's the last game, it's a final, and there are no excuses. This is an opportunity to rebuild ourselves and lift a title," Romeu said, turning tears into joy.