Against Wolfsburg, the Catalans won their second cup in three years.
Recognizable at first note, without being the Catman, hypnotic rhythm, ostinato bass, extremely ostinato to quote Mary Poppins, is Seven Nation Armyfor friends after after after after after. The victory song of the millenials, a cult with a vintage aftertaste like Stranger Things for generation Z, it has all the credentials to become a trend on TikTok. For now it’s the most played piece from the Philips Stadion stadium in Eindhoven last Saturday.
It’s the third minute of the UEFA Women’s Champions League final between Barcelona and Wolfsburg, the second after the change of format that includes the groups, when the center forward of the German team Eva Pajor he starts a dry right that makes the same noise as pungiballs in amusement parks. One hundred, jackpot, all in! It is first heard in the Dutch afternoon Seven Nation Army. Pajor is on his ninth goal in this edition of the competition, he has detached all pursuers by four goals. She kept behind people like Stina Blackstenius, Sam Kerr and Aitana Bonmatì.
The 26-year-old Polish had scored her first two goals already in October against St. Polten, with a brace that closed the game already in the first fifteen minutes. The first built from the left to then arrive in the area to collect a right-footed pinball machine; The second one running arm in arm with the last defender, waiting for a teammate’s assist to settle on his foot and send him into the net with a delicate dig like a raised little finger. The third goal, against Slavia Prague, was a goal like a real predator from the area: goes to meet to the cross that rains from the right and directs him behind the goalkeeper, impacting him with his right foot, his strong foot. Roma also came to terms with the top scorer in the Champions League, always in the group stage, both in the first leg and second leg. First is Linari, brutally overcome in one-on-one on the edge of the area, watching Pajor score with a right-footed plate; then, in the second leg, it was the entire Romanist defensive line that was taken against time from Jonsdottir’s run on the left and from Pajor’s twisting header, who almost twisted to the ground to hit the ball as in a breakdance step. Before Christmas there were already seven goals: again against St. Polten, which Wolfsburg beat 8-2, Pajor punished a wrong catch by the opposing goalkeeper by picking up the rebound and hitting it back on goal with his left foot. Having spared PSG in the quarter-finals, because perhaps they are suffering from the arrival of spring, goal number eight is a right slash at the far post after checking with the same foot. The celebration is copied to Cristiano Ronaldo. To suffer him, in the semifinal, the derelict Arsenal deprived at every step of a fundamental pawn and clinging tooth and nail to a hoped-for final.
In the final against Barcelona, we said, Pajor needed three minutes to put his mark: he put his breath down Bronze’s neck while she was trying to get out of the pressure ball and chain, stole the ball from her and kicked a right foot from the line powerful and sharp as a metal blade.
To listen again Seven Nation Army you have to wait a good half hour. Always Pajor, on the right corner of the penalty area, chooses not to aim the Bronze triplet in front of him; he instead he brakes and releases a remote-controlled cross on the head of Alexandra Popp who does just that by trade: materialize where the ball arrives and make the stands stand up. Thirty-two years old, diesel, captain of the German national team, finished the tournament on the rise by scoring 3 goals between the quarter-finals and the final: in the quarter-finals against PSG, putting his foot under the ball near the penalty area line and sending it with precision at the top corner of the door; against Arsenal, in the semi-final, directly converting a corner kick, as every player who kisses the ball before kicking from the flag dreams of doing; then against Barcelona, in the most important match of the season.
In the second half the music changes, at least on the pitch, from the speakers of the Philips Stadion it always resonates Seven Nation Army, but this time for Barcelona, who put the game back in balance by scoring two goals in two minutes. Both bear the signature of patri pebble: in the first he sews the game on the trocar, then widens to the right and throws himself in the middle to collect the cross: even if Guijarro strikes with his foot and not with his head, in the mind of those who Seven Nation Army if he remembers it well the dynamics of the action he remembers another action of Zidane in the final of World Cup 2006when in extra time he first opened to the right and then forced Buffon at the symbolic parade of that world championship. Guijarro, on the other hand, receives a low and strong cross: he widens his left foot, hits the ball with a dull blow that halves the disadvantage.
Not even the time to collect himself and pull his pants up in the stands after the exultation that Guijarro has once again attacked the area without the ball: this time the cross from the right is from Aitana Bonmati and soft, Guijarro extends it with a header towards the far post for the goal that is worth the draw. A brace that adds up to the goal scored against Benfica, and to the one scored against Roma.
At game time, Wilms, in an attempt to postpone, hits his partner Hendrich and the ball becomes the prey of the Barcelona forwards, careful to resist the frantic recoveries of the Wolfsburg players who cut the air with desperate slides. The ball arrives between the feet of Fridolina Rolfe, who just needs to cross the ball towards the far post to complete the comeback. For the Swede it is the fourth goal of the tournament, after two goals against Roma in the quarter-finals – a right footed shot on Oshoala’s discharge and a left footed shot with the easiest of taps at the far post – and the one at Rosengard, from a tight left footed position , powerful. The score doesn’t change anymore, Seven Nation Army it won’t ring again. Barcelona thus won the second Champions League in three seasonsin his third consecutive final, proving to be a fierce club in its intention to challenge Olympique Lyon for leadership in European football.
First and second for goals scored in this edition of the tournament, respectively 40 Barcelona and 28 Wolfsburg. First and second for attempts, 274 for Barcelona, 204 for Wolfsburg and all this with Putellas only entering the golden ball in the 90th minute. Barcelona-Wolfsburg won whoever heard it resonate once more than the others Seven Nation Army, a song that turns 20 this year but seems to have been around forever. As the UEFA Women’s Champions League seems to have always existed, which instead is only 22 years old – the same as Lena Oberdorf of Wolfsburg, awarded best young player of the tournament.