From "Competition" to Devastation: The Barça Femení Story
What happens when you've got Barça Femení's undivided attention? It's not for the faint of heart.
Over the past two Saturdays, a pair of opponents conspired to just about (US usage, not UK) hold Barça Femení to a 1-1 draw. For more than 83 minutes, Granada and Madrid Club de Fútbol Femenino (CFF) fairly impressively held down their respective forts.
On September 29 at the Johan, despite getting tagged with a second-minute Ewa Pajor opener, Granada settled down and defended. While the visitors did need three excellent Laura Sanchez saves (one against Clàudia Pina, two against Fridolina Rolfö) to maintain the minimal deficit for more than half an hour, they were not hopelessly on the ropes. Shit, even Marta Torrejón’s finish that doubled the lead called for an exceptional collaborative effort.
It would be disingenuous to say that Granada outplayed Barça, but this wasn’t some white-knuckle affair. They were disciplined and organized in defense and even threatened the Barça goal with a long-ranger that Cata Coll had to push over the bar. Not too bad for a side in just its second top-tier campaign (after a one-and-done foray in 2013-14) that needed two playoff rounds to secure promotion after a fifth-place finish in the second-tier Primera Federación FutFem.
From Barça’s perspective, on the heels of a dominant showing the week prior in Sevilla (76% possession, 27 shots, 9 on target) that yielded only a 1-0 win, a half-hour struggle against Liga F’s 12th-placed side hinted at the notion of maybe raising the question of whether their domestic competition, even further down the table, has gotten more, well, competitive.
The matter got further contemplation on October 5 in Madrid, as Barça absorbed an early opener when Allegra Poljak latched onto a Kamilla Melgård cross in the 15th minute. The goal shouldn’t have counted…
… but that’s ultimately irrelevant. It did. And, despite 76% possession and seventeen shots for Barça, Madrid didn’t face a single shot on target en route to a 1-0 halftime lead.
Of course, on each occasion, before any questions about continuity, complacency, or narrowing gaps in quality could take root, the dam exploded. Against Granada, the worm turned blindingly. Nine minutes after Marta doubled Barça’s lead, Alexia tacked on a third from the penalty spot. Then, in the four stoppage-time minutes that followed, a pair of CGH crosses found the back of the net, the first off of Granada’s Cristina Postigo for an own goal, the second as her second asistazo to Pajor.
Ten minutes after the break, Ornella Vignola spectacularly pulled on back for Granada, but that only set the stage for the next Blaugrana wave, as Rolfö, CGH, and Pajor all struck between the 60th and 70th minutes to push the lead to a staggering 8-1. The last 20 minutes brought Aitana’s latest eerie Messi impersonation and another spot kick from Alexia to round out the 10-spot.
The turnaround in Madrid didn’t take hold quite as quickly, but was every bit as devastating once it did. After failing to score for nearly 50 minutes and trailing for 35 of them, a half an hour brought braces for Keira Walsh and Alexia and one apiece from Vicky López and Pajor to blow the game wide open, with a pair of late, opportunistic strikes from defenders punctuating the 8-1 win.
Ranking the Ravaging(s)
Barça’s ruthless, unrelenting responses rendered any analysis of these momentary challenges moot — perhaps tonight’s Champions League clash with Manchester City will scratch that particular itch. On the bright side, these beatdowns did provide us with eighteen goals in less than 110 minutes to contemplate. In the absence of outside competition, let’s see how they stack up against one another!
1. Marta Torrejón (35’ vs. Granada; 2-0)
My initial assumption was that this set piece was not drawn up this way and that Alexia, through some combination of intuition and good fortune, just happened to cross paths with Mapi León’s overhit inswinging corner and did what she could to keep it in play
However, on many rewatches — and unwavering faith in Mapi’s gift for placing the ball basically wherever she wants — I’m reconsidering my position.
(Note: Apparently clipped clips from Youtube do not embed properly here — either that or I don’t know what I’m doing. Regardless, despite the repetitive thumbnails, each clip is set to the appropriate starting point.)
The plan clearly wasn’t to hit Ewa Pajor or CGH at the near post, leaving Keira Walsh as the presumptive target — not a role she frequently plays, even when not covered like she is here.
The only potential target past Walsh is Alexia. She neither changes direction nor breaks stride in her direct run toward the end line, maintains complete control in the air, and, almost before she’s actually headed the ball, looks toward the penalty spot, where Fridolina Rolfö has deliberately set up shop and is awaiting the ball. Of course, before Alexia’s headed pullback cross can get to Rolfö, Marta slides in and sends a rocket into the net.
An asistazo born of an inch-perfect masterclass in planning, execution, anticipation, and improvisation.
2. Aitana Bonmatí (78’ vs. Granada; 9-1)
This is really #1A. If you put together a similar ranking and place this gem atop your list, I would not argue. I mean…
There is legitimately nothing Aitana could have done better here. I’m just particularly enthralled by how perfectly all the moving parts sync up for Marta’s goal. Also, it took the score from 1-0 to 2-0 after a fallow half-hour, rather than from 8-1 to 9-1.
3. Alexia Putellas (80’ vs. Madrid CFF; 6-1)
An opportunistic point-blank poach in a messy goalmouth scrum ten minutes from time in a signed-and-sealed victory typically isn’t highlight fodder.
Then again, most garbage-time goal line finishes don’t draw you level with László freaking Kubala on Barça’s all-time scoring list. This goal, Alexia’s 194th for the club, tied her with the Hungarian legend, just four behind Luis Suárez in third. It seems a safe bet that Alexia will tally the five goals needed to eclipse El Pistolero for third place on the list. From there, the top-scoring woman in Barça’s history will set her sights on César Rodríguez, who netted 232 times for the club between 1942 and 1955.
Lionel Messi’s mark of 672 remains safe. And utterly obscene.
4. Fridolina Rolfö, (60’ vs. Granada; 6-1)
Clàudia Pina does well to pounce on the loose ball about 40 yards from goal and keep possession, but this play is ALL ROLFÖ.
She does phenomenally well to chase down the ball just to the left of the box before it goes out. She does even better to flummox the defender who, along with the end line, has seemingly got her hemmed in. And then her finish, smoothly yet savagely lasering the ball between three other defenders and past the keeper, is exquisite.
5. Ewa Pajor (2’ vs. Granada; 1-0)
Ewa Pajor is no stranger to the big time. In her time with Wolfsburg, she won the Frauen-Bundesliga five times (twice leading the league in goals), the DFB-Pokal Frauen nine times, appeared in four Champions League finals (in 2022-23 as the competition’s top scorer), and was named Polish Women’s Footballer of the Year four times. Even so, it’s tough to imagine there’s not at least a little pressure involved in joining the sport’s preeminent juggernaut.
Scoring the first and third in a 3-0 season-opening win away to Deportivo la Coruña strongly suggested that her adjustment period would be minimal. After an uneventful home debut against Real Sociedad, she served further notice, notching her first home league goal 87 seconds after kickoff.
This is hardly a symbolic selection, as the goal itself was beautifully put together, from the perfectly placed and weighted last-instant pass out to the right by CGH (Pajor’s teammate at Wolfsburg for four years), to Pajor’s excellent run and thumped finish across the keeper into the bottom left, this is a bona fide banger. For good measure, it was also the game’s only goal for more than half an hour.
6. Ewa Pajor (45+3' vs. Granada; 5-0)
This next tale begins with CGH, at a virtual standstill, staring down three defenders, all within three yards of her, before torching Alexia (Fernández Díaz) — a forward who deserved better than ritual sacrifice — to get to the end line.
As this is happening, Pajor, scorer of the game’s opening goal, darts, subtly but decisively, across the face of the goal from the edge of the six-yard box. Waiting for her in the middle of the goalmouth, about a yard out, is a “simple,” low cross worthy of the world’s most devastating playmaker, that only requires gentle redirection into the net.
The goal itself may be no more than a tap-in, but the outrageous intelligence, intuition, and surgical precision that make it possible deserve serious recognition.
7. Alexia (72’ vs. Madrid CFF; 4-1)
Between the positioning and awareness to take advantage of a flubbed routine clearance, the close control and agility to immediately gain possession and to dribble into and out of a trio of defenders, the strength to continue battling one of them for a couple of yards, and the raw, unstepped-on talent to toe-poke (I think… more or less) a 12-yarder through a fourth defender's legs into the bottom right…
I can’t decide if this goal is “spectacularly gritty” or “grittily spectacular.” Whatever your preference, it’s quintessentially Alexia.
8. Keira Walsh (49’ vs. Madrid CFF; 1-1)
In a rare moment of “peril,” having trailed 1-0 for 34 minutes and failing to register a shot on target in the entire first half, Barça’s pursuit of a breakthrough has an added sense of urgency. And, frankly, the Madrid CFF defense responded admirably, first blocking Patri Guijarro’s 12-yarder from just left of the penalty spot, then doing the same to Vicky López attempt from on the spot, and sending the ball toward Walsh, arguably the Barça outfield player least likely to make a baseball bat out of her right leg and uncork an 18-yard volley…
Had this volley not taken a slight deflection — which I’m not convinced it needed to find the net — this goal is in the top five, easy. As is, it’s still a beauty.
9. Keira Walsh (79’ vs. Madrid CFF; 5-1)
Though she’d already scored from the edge of the box about half an hour earlier, I’d be lying if I said I expected Keira to double up by stuffing a 20-yarder into the bottom left.
10. Vicky López (61’ vs. Madrid CFF; 3-1)
A mirror image of Walsh’s aforementioned second strike, we’ve got Vicky 20 yards out, to the right of the half circle, hammering a slick lay-off from Patri into the bottom right off of a bounce.
I spent a while figuring out how to order these two. This is every bit the golazo that Walsh’s is. Seeing this from Vicky surprised me less than seeing that from Keira. That, ultimately, was the tiebreaker.
11. Caroline Graham Hansen (65’ vs. Granada; 7-1)
Inch-perfect execution made to look completely mundane:
Were it not for the frankly ridiculous pass from Pina that starts this move, this might be relatively far down this list. Through no fault of Aitana’s or CGH’s — unless we’re holding “setting a hideously high standard” against them.
12. Ewa Pajor (59’ vs. Madrid CFF; 2-1)
Keira Walsh, now fully occupying the Busquets role, could not look more calm in rolling the ball past four Madrid CFF defenders. And Pajor, after timing her run through the sliced-wide-open defense perfectly, coolly passes the ball into the bottom right.
This is a masterpiece in understated intricacy.
13. Ewa Pajor (69’ vs. Granada; 8-1)
Ewa back! This time, in her fourth and final appearance in this ranking, with an outstanding display of awareness, quickness, and persistence to complete a hat trick in her first home league game.
14. Jana Fernández (90+3' vs. Madrid CFF; 8-1 )
The last five-goal tier is comprised of a combination of garbage time goals, penalties, and a visually ambiguous own goal.
The pick of the bunch is Jana’s impressive eight-ish-yard sliding finishing touch in Madrid, across the keeper and into the bottom right.
15. Ona Batlle (88’ vs. Madrid CFF; 7-1)
Rare is the player with a more finely-tuned sense of where to be and the strength, speed, quickness, and awareness to basically always be there than Ona. That’s all on display here, as she follows up what could have been Ewa Pajor’s fifth appearance here.
That said, this is still a point-blank 88th-minute putback for a 7-1 lead:
16. Alexia (44’ vs. Granada; 3-0)
A well-struck, well-placed spot kick that opened the floodgates in what was, to that point, a notionally competitive contest.
17. Alexia (90+3' vs. Granada; 10-1)
The other one was slightly better placed and came at 2-0 and not 9-1. Whaddya gonna do?
18. Cristina Postigo OG (45+1' vs. Granada; 4-0)
In the stadium, this goal was originally credited to Clàudia Pina. At that point, I wondered aloud if it had been an own goal. At some point that evening, someone else asked the same question and concluded in the affirmative.
Funnily, since that decision, I’ve watched this goal (some might say too) many times and now kinda feel like it was Pina who knocked it in. Weird.
L'elefant a L'habitació
Yeah, I know it’s been a minute. If you’re in the market for some meandering introspection on the matter, check back in a day or two for a link. Otherwise, I’d love to just call it good and pick up where we left off.
Força Barça.