There were cheers as loud as those for any home player when Keira Walsh’s name was announced over the PA at the start of Barça Femení’s away game against Manchester City Women at the 6°C-with-windchill Joie Stadium on Wednesday night; when she had a shot on goal in the second half, the record attendance crowd ooh’d. That was about as welcoming as the City fans were to the reigning European champions – booing throughout the match – and, though demonstrated through tactical gameplay rather than vocalisation, the City players weren’t any kinder.
Manchester City are a patient foe, having to watch from the sidelines for three-and-a-half years without being able to seek revenge on Barcelona Femení for knocking them out of the 2020–21 Champions League quarter-finals. When finally rewarded with the chance in their first match of the current iteration, the patience evaporated. Man City were here to play.
While there are disadvantages to a lack of participation in European football in terms of limited experience, the inverse is also true: your opponents don’t know what to expect. Barcelona Femení won’t have doubted the strength of a Man City side that boasts Lauren Hemp, Vivianne Miedema, Jill Roord and the incomparable Bunny Shaw – among others. But in trying to analyse how the team set up and perform in the Champions League, the last point of reference would be to a match in which Keira Walsh and Ellie Roebuck were decisive to City’s victory. Hardly useful information now.
In a game too similar to that match in March 2021 for Barça Femení to have not learnt lessons, however, Manchester City Women pressed viciously throughout the first half against a Barcelona who wanted to take the ball, pass the ball – and who wanted to sit off in defense. Only pressing for an immediate reclaim of possession in the midfield’s tight spaces, they otherwise let Man City’s attacks be worked through, the blaugrana falling back to a low block. Respect for the attacking prowess of City, yes, but also giving up crucial ground. The same was done when Barça did hold longer periods possession, which without fail turned into sequences that involved Cata Coll as if by requisite. It would be generous to say that City controlled the game in the first half, with mixed possession and much of the game disputed in the centre of the pitch.
In terms of attacking, however, they did. Barça’s shots were off target until Ewa Pajor should have scored from a mistake by Manchester City goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita, but it turns out Laia Aleixandri was the player to ruin the night for her former club, clearing that ball off the line. City had fewer but more accurate chances, and it was one of several good saves from Cata Coll that turned into the corner that gave City the advantage: the corner delivery found the danger zone and a goalmouth scramble saw the ball find the back of the net – after a brief deliberation, the goal was awarded to Naomi Layzell, her first for the club and on her debut in the Champions League proper. Jogo bonito it isn’t, but game-winning it is.
The second half saw Barça Femení come out trying to match Man City’s pressing game. This was a tactical change that only worked, mind, because of the quality of Barcelona’s players. In any other situation, it is all but openly admitting being one step behind the opponent, a dangerous game of catch-up that hands them the higher ground. But the control in Barça’s midfield, with pressing capability, saw them control the game. The tide turned heavily in their favour, most of the second half played in City’s half. What Barça had regained in dominance, they lacked in finishing, however. Aitana Bonmatí can square the ball to Caroline Graham Hansen on one wing, Mapi León and Keira Walsh can deftly send it through to Fridolina Rolfö on the other, and it feels like a goal will be inevitable.
Until Aleixandri or Alex Greenwood or Kerstin Casparij – or Yui Hasegawa in a quieter game but still appearing as if out of nowhere to claim balls – or Bunny Shaw with a defensive header to steer them away from danger – clears it all. Yamashita was rarely called into action, but impressed when she was, stretching high to tip several shots over the bar. Still, Barça’s best chances didn’t seem to take much saving: Clàudia Pina’s rocket would have been unstoppable if only it wasn’t the wrong side of the top corner, while Walsh’s curling attempt from distance was too central to scare the ‘keeper. When Walsh then elected to forgo a better shot to delicately thread the ball through for Pajor to pounce, Yamashita was claiming it from the striker’s feet before any real danger was seen. Barcelona generally seemed too insistent on centreing the ball in the box for a clear shot and not taking all their chances. While it’s thoughtful for them to be more conservative with their shooting in the Champions League, they were waiting for the perfect shot that never came.
It was against the run of play, then, with Barça appearing constantly on the verge of an equaliser, that City reclaimed possession and Layzell launched a speedy counter-attack, sending Bunny Shaw in behind. Ingrid Syrstad Engen, possibly Barcelona’s best defender on the night, had been taken off in order to bring in Pina’s attacking threat. Though Patri Guijarro had moved to the back line to cover, they were more exposed – mid-attack, the defense was wide open. Truly, Patri is probably lucky that her attempted slide tackle to dispossess Shaw was so mis-timed that it missed completely: had she succeeded, she would have surely seen red. Metaphorically speaking, however, she very quickly did anyway. Coll initially did very well, coming off her line to confront Shaw 1-on-1 in the box, shadowing her before going to claim the ball; Shaw swerved and only had Ona Batlle at the line to beat. Batlle beat herself in the end, diving for the line too early so she was on the floor by the time Shaw’s ball arrived, Mapi León still rushing back. The East Stand erupted into cheers for Shaw’s impressive solo goal, mixed in with jeers directed at Patri, who gestured in disapproval to the crowd and was tense for the rest of the game.
And when Pere Romeu decided to wholesale replace the midfield five minutes from the end of regulation time, it was another tactical shift, but (as far as we can tell) an inexplicable one. A change for the sake of change. A Hail Mary. The final admittance that, yeah, Manchester City was that step ahead on the night. In the minutes she got at the end, Vicky López looked good, but despite all-out attack-minded vigour, even a consolation goal could not be found.
Not even when City had to finish out the last seconds of the match down to ten players. Layzell, with her debut goal and assist, also got in an impressive steal during one of Barça’s “screw it” runs up pitch. But in turning to head back forward with perhaps another goal contribution on her mind, her knees appeared to buckle and she went down in pain, medics treating her for a few minutes before having to help her slowly limp off the pitch, Layzell unable to bear much weight and City out of substitutions. The worst end to her night, following what was surely a player of the match performance from the 20-year-old.
The two extra minutes of time spent treating Layzell were not added to the end of the game, which appeared to cause Patri to remonstrate with the officials at the restart, earning her the loudest boos of the night. City fans’ minds were rightfully occupied only by their injured player, but Patri’s was on the game and she may have had a point, Barça looking like they might find a goal if given just a bit more time. Was she hoping to pull off two in two minutes once again?
Barça fans will take little consolation from the same platitudes we hear every year – that La Liga F is strong but so stylistically consistent that we always get off to a shaky start against teams from England and Germany, who play radically differently – because winning is also so consistent that losing hurts. But we should take some comfort in the expectation that the players will take the same sinking feeling and use it to come back stronger in our next matches. Hopefully, with a tactical plan to match their performances.
