Barcelona’s European Kryptonite is the only thing standing between them and women’s football immortality

The biggest game in the history of Barcelona’s women’s team takes place this Saturday at the iconic San Mamés as Barça Femení take on Lyon in the 2024 Women’s Champions League Final, with kickoff set for 6pm CET (Barcelona), 5pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), Noon ET, 9am PT (USA), 9.30pm IST (india).

This has already been a fantastic season for Barça’s all-conquering women’s side, who have won the domestic Treble and only need to avoid defeat in their final two Liga F games in order to claim the Spanish triple crown of League, Cup and Super Cup as Invincibles. But the real history is at stake this weekend as the Catalans chase their first-ever quadruple by adding the European Cup to the trio of domestic trophies already won this season.

But in order to achieve that remarkable piece of women’s football history, Barça must overcome the only team they haven’t beat yet, their true European Kryptonite: Olympique Lyonnais Féminin.

Before Barça Femení became the dominant force in the sport over the last half-decade, reaching five of the last six European finals, winning two UWCL titles and doing so with the most beautiful, free-flowing style of football we’ve ever seen in the women’s game, Lyon were the undisputed queens of the sport, winning 14 consecutive French league titles and five Champions Leagues in a row.

Barça and Lyon have met four times in the Champions League, twice in the final, and most recently in the 2022 title match in Turin when Lyon shockingly stopped a heavily-favored Barça side from completing a remarkable campaign that would have gone down as the greatest single season by any football team in history.

Lyon have won all four European meetings against Barça, and their style of play has proven to be perhaps the only way to stop the Blaugrana machine: great defensive structure, physical pressing to stop Barça’s passing patterns, and efficiency on set pieces which is the only true Achilles’ heel of Jonatan Giráldez’s side.

But this 2023-24 version of Barça Femení is undoubtedly the one best prepared for Lyon’s physical, aerial style: the midfield of Kiera Walsh, Patri Guijarro and Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí is capable of not only playing but competing hard without the ball, and Women’s World Cup breakout star Salma Paralluelo is the type of striker Barça Femení never quite had: tall, strong, quick, great in the air and not afraid of physical confrontation.

Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images

Paraluello will face off against Wendie Renard, perhaps the greatest female center-back ever, and young Salma might be ready for this one more than any other Barça striker in the past. If she can win that particular battle, her team will have a real chance. The midfield also needs to be dominant as they have been all season, and Giráldez and his coaching staff must come up with a solid plan for Lyon’s set pieces with Renard as the biggest threat.

San Mamés is an absolutely perfect stage for what could be a brilliant end to an already historic season for Barça, but they must conquer their biggest nemesis to reach women’s football immortality. Lyon have the physicality, the experience and the psychological edge of their previous wins over the Blaugrana on their side, but Barça Femení have never been more ready to beat them than they are now.

Saturday can’t come soon enough.