Barcelona defended their title on Saturday, but Olympique Lyonnais was back to square one in a final that will live long in the memory.
Equalizer Soccer asks what the key takeaways were from this season's UEFA Champions League and looks ahead to what to look out for next season.
A budding rivalry
This was the third Champions League final between Barcelona and Lyon and the tightest yet. The game was evenly matched and the defense dominated until the 60th minute when Aitana Bommati's deflected shot turned the game around. Compared to Lyon's easy wins in the first half in 2019 and 2022, with scores of 4-0 and 3-0, this final was full of tension.
That Barcelona finally ended Lyon's unbeaten streak (the French club was leading 4-0 in head-to-head matches before the final) was a great thing for women's football as a whole. Rivalries in sport in general are intriguing, and there can be no rivalry unless it's truly dangerous. This final went a long way to evening the balance between the two top teams in Europe. This result will no doubt shape future narratives and interest in the same way that Lyon's battle with Wolfsburg did in the 2010s.
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Lyon will do everything in their power to bounce back
A video clip of Lyon's new owner Michelle Can having a pleasant chat with Barcelona's Alexia Poutellas at a trophy ceremony has gone viral online. If Poutellas hadn't already signed a new contract with Barcelona and scored the winning goal against her hometown club on Saturday night, rumors might have circulated that Can was trying to lure her to France. We can only imagine what words were exchanged, but given Can's ambitious and ever-growing women's football empire, she might have asked Poutellas what Barcelona's secret was.
Lindsey Horan told reporters after the match that Can has big plans for Lyon's future. From 2022 onwards, Can has acquired three women's football clubs in the US, UK and France, all with the aim of providing them with more resources. Horan said this also includes further investment in facilities to match Lyon's illustrious history and stars on the pitch. Barcelona's intensive women's football project over the past five years has clearly borne fruit, and Can undoubtedly wants to devise a similar formula to help Lyon catch up. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
A competitive knockout stage
Sure, Barcelona won and Lyon reached the final – there were no real surprises – but there are signs that the Champions League as a whole is becoming more competitive every year.
Just as the final was more heated than in recent years, the leaders also faced more tense early matches than usual: eventual winners Barcelona drew 4-4 with Benfica in January and then narrowly beat Norway's SK Brand in the first leg of their quarter-final, while Lyon had to come from behind to win 2-1 in the first leg of their last-eight tie against Benfica.
These smaller teams can't compete with the top teams in terms of facilities, wages and investment – not yet – but they have shown some challenging play on the pitch at times, and the hope is that as football becomes more widely available this will eventually become the norm – particularly in the early stages of a competition that can sometimes feel stagnant, with most of the bigger clubs cruising along.
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Changes are happening in the top team
Three of the four semi-finalists will have new managers in charge next season – Sonia Bompastor will move from Lyon to west London to replace Emma Hayes at Chelsea, with the decision due to be announced this week.
Hayes is already establishing herself with the U.S. Women's National Team, while Jonathan Giraldes finished her career at Barcelona with a 4-peat before joining the Washington Spirit.
So what happens to the remaining teams and players?
At Chelsea, the atmosphere will undoubtedly change and be transformed with Hayes gone after 12 years in charge. Former club stalwarts such as Fran Kirby and Ann-Katrin Berger have departed and Sam Kerr has a long way to go before recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Meanwhile, striker Mayra Ramirez, who was in fine form towards the end of the season, may have time to really settle in.
Barcelona have more stability with their core squad expected to stay after Putellas agreed a new contract last week, but five-time European champion Lucy Bronze's contract remains uncertain after her impressive performance in the final and no successor has yet been named.
Lyon's record Champions League scorer Ada Hegerberg recently signed a contract extension that keeps her at the club until 2027, while captain Wendy Renard has also signed a long-term contract until 2026. As for the new manager, Spanish media have reported that former Arsenal and current Scotland manager Pedro Martínez Rosa will take over.
Record Breaker
The 50,827 fans who packed Bilbao's San Mames Stadium on Saturday made the match one to remember – the biggest crowd a European Cup final has ever drawn. Sitting in the stands as a reporter, I was struck by how normal these figures are becoming in women's football. They have been seen in club football across England this season.
UEFA was kind enough to post an image on X comparing the Bilbao crowd to the 2014 final, when Wolfsburg won in Lisbon in front of a sparsely packed stadium of 11,217 fans. But it was a selective one.
The previous record attendance was 50,212, set in Munich in 2012. In subsequent years, UEFA opted for venues in stadiums with much smaller capacities.
That it took 12 years for attendance to exceed 50,000 is a reminder that despite the progress made by women's football over the past few seasons, a bigger and better future is not guaranteed. The ambition and investment of decision-makers must be matched by their passion for the game. Long may this excitement and momentum continue.