WCL final: Barcelona aim to ease ‘trauma’ of 2022 against Wolfsburg

The Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas has said Barcelona “owe the fans a victory” in Saturday’s Champions League final against Wolfsburg after last year’s “traumatic” 3-1 defeat by Lyon.

Barcelona fans, having twice sold out the Camp Nou in the team’s run to last season’s final in Turin, travelled in force to Italy. Planes were filled and 37 coaches made the trip overnight from the Catalan capital. The supporters witnessed their team fall three goals behind within 33 minutes as Lyon flexed their muscles. Despite that, you could have been forgiven after the full-time whistle for thinking Barcelona had triumphed, because the stadium swayed to the tune of their fans.

“You always have to know how to handle the pressure when you start playing for Barça,” Putellas said. “You know what it means; you have to aim for perfection. There’s always room for improvement in sport, there’s always pressure. The defeat in Turin last year did affect us, with so many fans travelling there, but it was not to be in the end. I feel like that was our worst performance of the season after playing at such a high level throughout the campaign. We feel like we owe the fans a victory in the final. We will play at 100% and do everything for the team and hope this combination will bear fruit.”

Fans are expected to travel in similar numbers to the sold-out final in Eindhoven and Putellas emphasised how much it matters.

“That is a really big deal,” she said. “We would like to thank all of the fans for making the effort to be here. We know some fans are coming by bus, more than 15 hours. We know people are putting in a huge effort and spending a lot of money too and we are really grateful. Having the fans there will make a huge difference. The fans have