Barça, Madrid's great envy
The firm commitment of the Barça club, on and off the pitch, is the example to follow by other teams
Barcelona“It’s not just about the money, it’s about time and growth”. This is the reflection made by Pau Quesada, technician of Real Madrid, after conceding the 6-0 at Camp Nou. Barça once again demonstrated why it is a benchmark team and one we can be proud of, as Alexia Putellas described after the match. “I feel that we are all moving in the same direction: fans, team, and club”, added the captain. The blaugranes filled Camp Nou with 60,067 people, the best attendance since returning to the stadium. The attendance against Real Madrid surpassed the 56,812 spectators who had gathered ten days earlier to watch Barça - Rayo Vallecano (1-0).
This is a commitment that is neither new nor recent, but rather dates back years when in 2015 Bartomeu's board decided to professionalize the women's section. Since then, steps have been taken forward to reach the current stage, where the blaugranes dominate the national scene – they are five points away from their seventh consecutive league title – and international scene – the Catalans will compete in their eighth consecutive Champions League semi-final, their ninth in the last ten years.
Barça is the mirror in which all clubs look. Seven of the eight teams present in the quarter-finals – all except Real Madrid – opened the big stadium, but only Barça surpassed 30,000 people. Bayern Munich remained at 25,000 people – a club record in a Champions League match –, Arsenal at 18,087, Chelsea at 16,117, Olympique de Lyon at 14,083, Manchester United at 7,513 and Wolfsburg at 5,089. Numbers that demonstrate the amount of people the blaugrana club moves, which doubled these figures with tickets ranging from 25 to 120 euros. “It is not easy to achieve and it must be valued”, said Patri Guijarro in the preview to the return of the quarter-finals against Real Madrid.
This is a proof of the anecdote that Xavi Puig, the director responsible for women's football during Laporta's last term, told a few weeks ago during one of the times Barça visited Stamford Bridge. “Chelsea's owner, Todd Boehly, told me he had come specifically from the United States because he wanted to know how we work on women's football at Barça because they had told him wonderful things and he loved it,” he confessed in an interview with Sport.
Meanwhile, other clubs are content to accept reality. “They are 20 years ahead of us. The day will come when we play at the Bernabéu, but we have work to do at the Di Stéfano to get people who come to come. We take it as normal, it's a process that we have to go through,” Quesada resignedly said when asked about being the only team not to open the main stadium.
The return, in a month
“Now comes the most decisive part of the season. We are always demanded everything and we will try to achieve everything”, commented Pere Romeu after the thrashing in the classic. Barça could seal the League in the coming weeks – on Monday against Badalona if the blaugranas win and Real Madrid does not get three points on Sunday at Madrid CFF's ground or at the end of April at Espanyol's ground in case Pere Romeu's team gets six points –, they are in the final of the Copa de la Reina – which will be played on May 16 in Gran Canaria against Atlètic de Madrid – and will play the Champions League semi-finals again. All this with the Spanish Super Cup already in the trophy cabinet.
The commitment remains firm. Bayern Munich has already confirmed that they will play the first leg against Barça at the Allianz Arena on April 25 or 26, while the Catalan club is working on the idea of reopening the Camp Nou for the second leg on May 2 or 3 after the success last Thursday, where two million euros were raised just from direct ticket sales, as reported by RAC1and ARA has been able to confirm. Everything suggests that the “incredible” and “emotional” atmosphere that Romeu described will be experienced again in less than a month. This is the fruit of the good work done over many years.