The Football Fern who faced the might of Barcelona
Barcelona have conquered almost all before them on the way to this year’s Uefa Women’s Champions League final.
The Spanish giants take on Wolfsburg of Germany in Eindhoven in the Netherlands this weekend (kickoff 2am tomorrow, NZ time) looking to add the European crown to the domestic title they won earlier this month.
Since the start of the current season last September, Barcelona have played 43 matches in all competitions and have had 38 wins, two draws and three losses – one of which was by default.
They have won Spain’s Liga F for the past four seasons, while winning 110 of their 115 league matches.
Across all competitions in that time, they have won 154 of their 167 matches, while winning the Spanish cup in 2020, 2021, and 2022, the Spanish super cup in all four seasons, and the Champions League in 2021. It was during that Champions League run – culminating in an emphatic 4-0 win over Chelsea in the final – that Barcelona came up against Danish club Fortuna Hjørring.
Football Ferns forward IndiahPaige Riley was playing there at the time and she remembers sitting with her team-mates watching the draw for the round of 16.
‘‘When we got drawn against
Barcelona, we were a bit scared, just because they’re filled with worldclass players, but I was excited to have the opportunity to play against the best players in the world.’’
Fortuna Hjørring had qualified for the Champions League by winning the Danish Eliedivisionen in 2020, but proved to be no match for Barcelona, losing 4-0 away and 5-0 at home.
In spite of the lopsided result, Riley came away with a sense of just how good the world’s best were.
‘‘It was such an amazing opportunity to be on the field, sharing the field with the best player in the world now, Alexia Putellas. It was an exciting time and exciting event to be a part of.
‘‘Obviously, we didn’t really get an opportunity to win the game, but I think just watching their movement ... they’re all class.’’
Barcelona’s opponents this weekend, Wolfsburg, are no slouches themselves. While they missed out on winning Germany’s FrauenBundesliga, as they had done in five of the past six seasons, they did win the German cup for the ninth year in a row and are playing in the Champions League final for the sixth time in the past 11 years.
Both sides are replete with players that will feature at this year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia – a tournament that is also firmly in Riley’s thoughts.
After switching her allegiance from Australia – after enquiries from Stuff prompted Ferns coach Jitka Klimkova´ to get in touch – Riley made her New Zealand debut last September.
If she makes the cut for the final Cup squad, she might even find herself up against some of those Barcelona stars again, with Norway boasting forward Caroline Graham Hansen and Switzerland home to forward Ana-Maria Crnogorcˇevic´, both of whom played in 2021.