TORINO (VG) Prior to the Champions League final, Barcelona-Lyon was referred to as the “Golden Ball duel” between star Alexis Putellas and Ada Hegerberg. After the defeat, the Catalans criticized their opponents at home in Spain.

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Barcelona are the favorites before Saturday’s Champions League final. While the Norwegian press is very concerned duel between Hegerberg and Barcelona’s Caroline Graham Hansen, the biggest attention is on Gullball winner Hegerberg against Putellas in Europe. Among other things, France’s L’Equipe called the duel a “Ballon d’or match”, while Spain’s Marca wrote “Of the many duels we can see in this final, one shines above the other”.

The best is coming Hegerberg with scores, an assist and his sixth Champions League win. Putellas pulled it back to 1-3 with a volley after a perfect post from Graham Hansen, but Barcelona never came back from a ruthless opening. After 33 minutes, the score was 3-0 to Lyon, although Barcelona dominated most of the match.

Putellas believes Barcelona does not depend on Lyon’s intensity and strength.

– My assessment is that no matter how much we train, we need more speed in the competition. We didn’t get this rhythm in domestic games. We achieved this by tightening everyone, both infrastructure and all players had to be tightened if we wanted to get this speed. We have to have a change, the Barcelona captain told Spanish TV 3.

Barcelona is in a class of its own in Spain. They won the draw with 30 of 30 wins and an absurd goal difference of 159-11. The distance to Sociedad is 24 points.

In the French league, Lyon are also outstanding with 58 points from a possible 60 so far, but the game from PSG, who are five points behind, is very difficult.

– As a player, I want to have this pace in every game, said Putellas.

She is the symbol of Barcelona, ​​the top scorer in the Champions League with 11 goals and won the Golden Ball in 2021. In 2018, Hegerberg won the first women’s championship, while Megan Rapinoe came top in 2019. In 2020 , it was not given because of the pandemic .

Barcelona coach Jonatan Giráldez was asked if the competition in Spain was too small.

“I’m not going to make excuses,” Giráldez replied.

– We have to play faster and we have the players to do it. We can’t win every game.”

Ian Wright, a former Arsenal hero, followed the fight for Dazn and hailed his entrance to Lyon.

“We know what it means for Lyon to come back here (in the Champions League final. What they showed at the start of the game, and especially how much they care for Putellas. They didn’t give him time with the ball,” Wright said.

After the match, the Barcelona players were crushed and Graham Hansen was in tears on the pitch. Neither Graham Hansen nor Ingrid Syrstad Engen, who was on the bench, did not cross the press zone after the game.

Mostly only the Lyon players were happy, but Hegerberg also didn’t appear in the Norwegian media waiting until midnight. It was explained he was on routine doping control before Lyon flew home quickly.