Barça are “proud of our path” as they chase third consecutive UWCL title, says Bonmatí | OneFootball

Aitana Bonmatí suggested that Barcelona have “lived all kinds of situations” and plan to use that to their advantage when they face Arsenal in Saturday’s UEFA Women’s Champions League final.

Barça could lift their third consecutive European title in their 100th match in the competition at Lisbon’s Estádio José Alvalade, which would confirm a significant shift of the power dynamics in the UWCL. Prior to the Blaugrana‘s period of dominance, Olympique Lyonnais were the team to beat – but Bonmatí insisted: “I don’t want to compare with Lyon.”

“They had a path and now we have our path. We are different teams in different years. We used to talk really good about them because for us, they were the mirror in the past and now we can tell that maybe we are the mirror for a lot of teams. We’re proud of our path and we’ll try to be more historical tomorrow.”

Despite only making their UWCL debut in 2012, Barça have become a familiar figure in the finals. Asked what she’s learnt over the years from competing in matches of that calibre, the two-time Ballon d’Or winner revealed that “we just wanted to enjoy the game” when they reached their first final in Budapest six years ago.

“Now we are totally different, we have lots of experience and this experience as I said in the past is very positive because it helps us in the final,” she told reporters gathered for Barça’s pre-match press conference, adding that “in some finals we overcame a bad result so I think we lived all kind of situations and that’s positive for us.”

As a result of their on-pitch triumph and their spectacular support across the continent, Barcelona have seemingly become the referent club when it comes to paving the way for future generations of women’s players. Bonmatí, 27, takes that responsibility seriously.

“I always say that we have to be proud of being examples because when we were young, we didn’t have these examples,” she commented.

“I think our team is working every year the same way and with the same ambition to show the world and future generations that they can be professional footballers because when we were young, we didn’t have the chance to see our futures as professional footballers.”