The whys of Alexia's tears at Camp Nou

BarcelonaBarça will play another Champions League final –the seventh in its history, the sixth consecutive one–. The Camp Nou was once again filled with more than 60,000 people and Pere Romeu's team beat Bayern Munich (4-2) for the second time this season. The day after this historic feat, however, the spotlight has turned to Alexia Putellas. The player left the field emotional and rumors about the possibility of it being her last match at the Camp Nou have spread rapidly. According to sources consulted by ARA, the explanation is that the tears were of relief after a week of great nerves about what was at stake, nothing more and nothing less than a new European final. Winning the Champions League is always the team's top priority. The captain has not yet decided her future, but she has always expressed her desire to continue if she considers herself to be at the highest level, they explain to this newspaper.

Minute 86. Ivana Projkovska shows the illuminated sign with the number 11. Alexia is the player chosen by Pere Romeu to leave the field of play. The Camp Nou begins to cheer and chant the name of the blaugrana captain – whose contract ends on June 30 –, while Alexia hands the captain's armband to Patri Guijarro. The player from Mollet del Vallès, visibly emotional and holding back tears, leaves the pitch. "It has been a week in which I have had a bit of a bad time and I got emotional. The emotions I have held back all week have come out. It's not bad to show emotions," explained the player just after the match.

The frustration of Munich

The main reason for these tears is frustration over the first leg match at the Allianz Arena. In Munich, things did not go as planned. The 1-1 draw in the first leg did not guarantee the ticket to Oslo, the season's main objective, and Alexia –who is very self-demanding– ended up with the feeling of not having been able to help the team as much as she would have liked, according to sources consulted by ARA. The midfielder, furthermore, had to occupy a more central role in play creation in which she did not feel entirely comfortable. In this more advanced position, the Catalan footballer had to perform darker tasks, invisible to the general public's eyes. Proof of this discomfort is the conversation she had with Pere Romeu at the start of the second half.

On the return, the player from Mollet del Vallès was a protagonist in the game and on the scoreboard, with a brace that brought the team closer to Oslo. At the time of the substitution, Alexia felt a great release, hence the emotion she showed. Furthermore, the same sources state that nothing has yet been decided regarding her future. The two parties still need to sit down and talk, but the captain has always conveyed her willingness to continue wearing the blaugrana shirt, as long as she feels she can perform at her best.

Barça will play another Champions League final, the seventh. "Emotion of so much esteem, of achieving a goal we had for a long time," Alexia added to 3Cat, who with the double against Bayern Munich has equaled César as the club's second top scorer (232 goals) only behind Leo Messi.

Some Ballon d'Or numbers

With their qualification for the final, Alexia Putellas continues to buy tickets for the Ballon d'Or. The Blaugrana player has accumulated 24 goals and 13 assists in 46 matches this season and has recently become the player with the most titles with Barça, a total of 36, which could be 38 at the end of the season. The captain also equaled Leo Messi as the two Blaugrana footballers with the most league titles, ten. "She is a great player, one of the best in the world. She has shown it in the match, she has scored two goals and has helped the team a lot. She has also helped me a lot as a player, she is like a sister," praised Clara Serrajordi, one of the young players who have established themselves this season in the first team.

Patri Guijarro, another of the captains, also highlighted Alexia's role after the match. "She is our leader. When she came to put the armband on me, I told her she was the best and that we would manage to be in the final," commented the Balearic midfielder, who emphasized the pride of playing a European final for the sixth consecutive year.

In the press conference at the Camp Nou, Pere Romeu also explained the reasons for Alexia's substitution. "I am very happy with her game, but in the final stretch we were left with little energy in the midfield, and that's why I decided to bring in Kika Nazareth," argued a very assertive Romeu. "I absolutely don't care about the opinion of outsiders. I care about the opinion of the coaching staff, players, and sporting management. You have to have footballing judgment to be able to give an opinion on things. That's why some of us are coaches and others are what they are," the coach asserted forcefully after the criticism he has endured over these two seasons at the helm of Barça's bench.