It's Always Been You

Chapter 32

May 21st 2022 - Turin, Italy

8:45pm

Hello everyone, and welcome to this year's stream of the Women's Champion's League final. On this beautiful May evening, holders FC Barcelona and seven time past winners Olympique Lyonnais go head to head in the biggest competition in club football, and we can't wait to see how this match plays out.

With ten minutes to go before the start of the match, we discuss each side's starting eleven. Starting with current champion's Barcelona, who have won every single match they have played this season, winning the Primera División title along with the Copa de la Reina and the Supercopa, successfully completing Spain's domestic treble. They will be looking to continue their pitch perfect form, and hold on to their title from last season, lining up in a 4-3-3:

Sandra Paños
Fridolina Rolfö
Mapi León
Irene Paredes
Marta Torrejón
Aitana Bonmatí
Alexia Putellas
Patri Guijarro
Lieke Martens
Jenni Hermoso
Ana-Maria Crnogorčević

Paños will be an important player for the Barcelona side, winning last year's UWCL Goalkeeper of the Season, along with being in the UEFA Women's Champion's League Squad of the Season five times out of the past six competitions. She has been rock solid for the Barcelona side, conceding only six times in the Primera División this whole season.

Mapi León will be another important player for the team, as she has been one of the world's best centre backs this season with an incredible aerial presence and ability to move forward and play good balls into the channels.

Their midfield trio consists of current Ballon D'or holder Alexia Putellas, as well as Aitana Bonmatí and Patri Guijarro, who are all equally great players in their own right. Putellas in particular, winning her fair share of awards this year for her performance for club and country last season, is a key player for the Spanish side, with the two others Bonmatí and Guijarro having been at Barcelona for a while, Guijarro transferring from Collerense back in 2015 and Bonmatí having her their whole career at Barcelona, both of them going up the ranks and developing into first team players for the team.

Their front line consists of Lieke Martens, Dutch international and another one of Barcelona's top players. She has struggled with injury during recent months, so we will have to see how Barcelona's head coach Xavi will aim to manage her game time. Then there is Jenni Hermoso taking up the main striker role, a veteran forward who has played exceptionally for Barca in recent years. On the other side starts Ana-Maria Crnogorčević, the Swiss winger who will aim to spread apart Lyon's defence and help exploit the spaces in between.

For their opposition, French giants Lyon, were originally set to lineup in a 4-2-3-1, but with the withdrawal of key player Valentine Dahlberg, we assume that they will switch more into a 4-3-3, opting a more defensive midfield replacement:

Endler
Carpenter
Renard
Buchanan
Morroni
Horan
Macario
Dahlberg Egurrola
Cascarino
Hegerberg
Malard

In goal starts Chilean Christiane Endler, who has proven time and time again that she is a world class goalkeeper with exceptional talent, most recently winning the FIFA Best Goalkeeper and being apart of the FIFPRO World XI the past two years.