Speaking after Barcelona’s second leg semifinal victory over Chelsea in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, Patri Guijarro praised her side’s mentality and commented on how it felt to play in front of a sellout crowd at Stamford Bridge.
The Blaugrana were dealt their first home defeat since February 2019 last weekend, as Erin Cuthbert struck to seal a first leg win for Emma Hayes’ Chelsea. Patri told reporters that ‘since the moment we left Montjuïc, we were convinced that we were going to make a comeback. We had to believe, and when Aitana scored, the truth is it was going well. We’ve done something difficult, levelling a knockout tie, and then in the second half I felt that we had control, we were able to play well.’
Controversial refereeing calls, including a red card for Kadeisha Buchanan that was labelled as ‘the worst decision in Women’s Champions League history’ by Emma Hayes, allowed Barcelona to tighten their grip on the match in the second half.
Patri agreed, explaining that ‘the truth is that with the red card and Frido’s [Rolfö’s] goal, they [Chelsea] went all out because they had nothing to lose, and some of us were caught out. But I think that in general, we controlled the game well and we’re happy.’
Embed from Getty ImagesShe added that Barcelona’s energy came from ‘our heads and our hearts, because the truth is that today, we didn’t stop running. This match required it, but you know how we are. We’re always going to try and give 100%, and today, it wasn’t going to be any less.’
For the first time, Stamford Bridge drew a sellout crowd for a women’s match, with 39,398 supporters flooding through the turnstiles on Saturday evening. ‘It was amazing, almost 40,000? If I’m not mistaken, it was almost 40,000 fans and I always try to notice the people that have come because the truth is, it was a spectacle worthy of being a semifinal and above all, I’m happy with all the Culés who came because they’ve been heard and they’ve supported us,’ said the midfielder.
SW6 was the place to be for fans of women’s football, and the atmosphere inside Stamford Bridge was electric – especially during the six additional minutes of stoppage time. Quizzed by a reporter as to how long those six minutes felt like, Patri joked: ‘I didn’t even notice to be honest! We were defending to the maximum, because obviously they’d gone all out and brought Bright on as a 9 – and she’s very good with her head, as we all know.’
‘It was a case of trying to control the game as much as possible, because they had one less player so we tried to control the match and pass time to be able to win.’
