Barcelona win over Bayern sets up Giráldez clash in UWCL final

BARCELONA, Spain — Barcelona set up a fascinating showdown with former coach Jonatan Giráldez and his OL Lyonnes side in Oslo after weathering a late Bayern Munich storm at Camp Nou on Sunday to win their semifinal second leg 4-2, and the tie 5-3 on aggregate, to book their place in a sixth successive Champions League final.

After drawing 1-1 in Munich last week, three-time winners Barça looked on track for a place in the final May 23 when Alexia Putellas’ second goal of the afternoon gave them a 4-1 lead on the day over Bayern.

Everything had come together in a near-perfect first hour for Pere Romeu’s team. Caroline Graham Hansen and Salma Paralluelo looked unstoppable on the wings, Ewa Pajor carried her usual goal threat, Putellas was popping up at all the right moments and Aitana Bonmatí came off the bench to make her first appearance since breaking a leg in November. Giráldez, who was in charge of Barça when they beat Lyonnes in the 2024 final, would have been wondering just how to beat his former side, which is now unbeaten across 31 games in all competitions.

However, the final 30 minutes showed that Barça, who lost last year’s final to Arsenal, can be vulnerable. Bayern, themselves unbeaten in 29 matches heading into Sunday’s game since losing 7-1 to Barça back in October really put the home side under pressure. So much so, in fact, that coach José Barcala might question why he didn’t send his team on the attack far sooner.

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Putellas’ second goal finally sparked Bayern into life. Pernille Harder pulled one back in the 71st minute, and what followed was an onslaught from the German champions: They hit the bar twice, had a goal disallowed for a foul in the buildup and saw countless shots either blocked by defenders or saved by Barcelona goalkeeper Cata Coll. They went out swinging.

“Right now, it’s too painful,” Bayern’s Giulia Gwinn said. “I know we can be proud, but that feeling will come with time. We had chances, hit the woodwork twice — for me, I’m not able to explain why the goal was chalked off. There’s plenty of frustration as we had the feeling we were still in it.”

Over the course of the tie, though, Barça were the better side — and especially Sunday. They racked up 23 shots to Bayern’s 12 and an xG of 3.25 to their opponent’s 0.99. It was only 2-1 at halftime, but the lead could quite easily have been four or five.

Barcelona can now resume their rivalry with eight-time winners Lyonnes, the other dominant force in women’s soccer in Europe over the past decade, albeit with a captivating twist: This time, they’re up against Giráldez.

Current Barça coach Romeu was part of Giráldez’s coaching staff when he was in charge of the Catalans from 2021 to 2024. During that period, Barça won back-to-back Champions Leagues in 2023 and 2024. They have yet to scale Europe’s summit since Giráldez’s departure for the Washington Spirit.

There was great surprise at Barça to see Giráldez back in Europe so soon, leaving the Spirit for Lyonnes after just a year in the United States. It will add spice to a fixture that already had plenty.

It will be the fourth final between the two teams. The French side was victorious in 2019 and 2022, exerting its dominance over Barça in the process, but Barça’s win in Bilbao in 2024 appeared to signal a changing of the guard. Before, Barça seemed like the challenger to the throne; now, both teams feel like they are No. 1. The final in Oslo on May 23 will help determine who really is the ruling force in the women’s game right now.

Barça certainly staked their case in the opening minutes against Bayern. Freed from the shackles of the suspended Franziska Kett, sent off in the first leg, Graham Hansen was sensational in the early exchanges here, setting up chance after chance. It was no surprise to see her brilliant cross lead to the opener for Paralluelo in the 13th minute.

Bayern briefly silenced the crowd of 60,000 at Camp Nou by equalizing four minutes later, as woeful Barça defending allowed Harder to set up Linda Dallmann. But Bayern’s joy was short-lived.

Captain Putellas had already come close when a loose ball dropped to her in the box. She duly dispatched the ball past Ena Mahmutovic, delivering her customary bow in the corner to celebrate in front of the adoring public. It marked her eighth straight home game in the competition with a goal contribution.

There could have been more Barça goals before the break — Esmee Brugts was especially wasteful — but they soon took the game away from Bayern in the second half.

Paralluelo had been a slightly surprising pick ahead of Clàudia Pina, but she delivered arguably her best performance of the season, justifying Romeu’s decision. She delivered the assist for Pajor to make it 3-1, a fine cross from the left in the 54th minute.

Four minutes later, via a brilliantly deft finish, Putellas extended the lead. She leads the way in the Champions League this season with 14 goal contributions — eight goals and six assists. She also, notably, now has 233 Barça goals, according to ESPN Global Soccer Research, moving her past César Rodríguez as the club’s second-leading scorer of all time across both the men’s and women’s teams. Only Lionel Messi (672) has more.

She is as important to Barça as her contract situation is worrying. Her terms expire this summer and there is still no sign of a renewal agreement. Her reaction as she was substituted late in the game suggested she was not 100% sure whether she will get the chance to pull on the Barça shirt at Camp Nou again.

Bonmatí, meanwhile, was back in a Barça shirt for the first time since November, coming off the bench just as Bayern began to throw caution to the wind. She won’t have enjoyed some of the chances the German champions created, but she will be delighted to be back on the pitch with Champions League and Copa de la Reina finals to come and Barça targeting a quadruple.

“To reach six finals in a row is genuinely crazy,” Bonmatí told Disney+. “We are normalizing something which is absolutely not normal. It says everything about the ambition of this team to keep the bar so high.

“Now for Lyonnes, who for me are always the team to beat and the team we looked to when we were nothing and wanted to reach their level, which we achieved.”

And what about Giráldez, the man who played a part in helping Barça reach that level and now stands in the way of a fourth European crown?

“I am grateful to Jonatan for everything he did for me as a player, but now we are rivals,” Bonmatí added. “We are only thinking about winning that trophy.”