That’s because they had comprehensively lost 3-1 to Lyon in the previous year’s Turin showpiece. By the time Ewa Pajor and Alex Popp had struck for Wolfsburg, it looked as if, despite their status as clear favourites, the fear of another defeat was playing heavily on the minds of Spain’s champions. 

No one who was there, amid the buoyant, noisy atmosphere, nor anyone watching on TV, could hear the thoughts of Barcelona’s players, eight of whom were in that beaten team a year previously. Retrospectively, however, a couple of Giráldez’s players were happy to capture the mood. 

“In the first half, you’re thinking, ‘What are we doing? How is it possible? This is not our game plan,’” Fridolina Rolfö told Champions Journal after the game. “And then, in the locker room at half-time, we’re all sitting there thinking, ‘We have to do something… we have to change the game.’”

Aitana Bonmatí, meanwhile, ended the match being named the Women’s Champions League Player of the Season, but that prospect seemed a long way off at the break. “Coming back from 2-0 down is difficult – even more so in a final,” she explained. “You start thinking about last year’s mistakes. We were on the ropes. I could recall apologising to our fans after the final last year, promising we would be back. We had to give our all.”

It was simple enough, during the second half, to identify why the pendulum swung back towards Barcelona – who were about to become only the second team, following Wolfsburg in 2014, to overturn a two-goal deficit in the final. Giráldez pushed Rolfö far higher up the left wing, from full-back to winger, moved Salma Paralluelo inside to play as a false No9 and redeployed Mariona Caldentey deeper in midfield, which created the superiority of numbers that the modern Barça teams, men’s and women’s, perpetually crave. 

What all of us watching had to guess at, before it became evident, was whether Barcelona, finalists in four of the last five Champions League seasons, would have enough of the ‘right stuff’ to ensure that this became a contest. So it proved, as a quick-fire double from Patri Guijarro and Rolfö’s winner secured the club’s second European crown.

Days later, once the trophy had been lifted and the celebrations had hit their raucous peak, Giráldez sat down and spoke, analytically, about what happened to light the blue touchpaper for one of this competition’s all-time 45-minute performances. 

“In my opinion, our emotional management of all these moments was an important learning experience. When you’re going through a rough patch, I always say, ‘It doesn’t matter what has happened – what’s most important is how you react.’ And the reaction we had in Eindhoven, in terms of our mental level, was why we were able to win the Champions League.”

The eventual result wasn’t simply proof of what Bonmatí called Barcelona’s “warrior spirit”. Unless you were an increasingly despondent Wolfsburg fan, the second half was a celebration of stunning football and, importantly, also testament to the quality of women’s football in Europe. 

Once Guijarro had volleyed in her and Barça’s first goal after 48 minutes, the scene was set for the final’s most exquisite moment. The author, Bonmatí, describes it. “I received a ball on the wing and controlled it forwards, which gained me a couple of metres’ advantage. I saw their player [Pajor] coming towards me at full speed and told myself, ‘I’m going to sell her a dummy and pretend to cross. I’m going to get past her by leaving her on the ground.’ 

“My main thought was that I’d be in a better position to cross if I cut back onto my left foot. That would also give more time for my team-mates to get into the box. Football is a matter of split-second decisions – often it comes down to pure instinct from all the things you’ve experienced.”

The floodgates opened. Guijarro had read Bonmatí’s intentions, arrived on the run and headed in for a gala goal which would have graced any final. “Seeing the ball in the net for that second goal was even better than the first one,” said the Player of the Match. “It was unbelievable, especially getting two in such a short space of time.”

Rolfö’s clever finish on 70 minutes then sealed the comeback. “That feeling when I scored… I freaked out, of course,” the Sweden forward explained afterwards. “We’d been 2-0 down, but I scored to make it 3-2. I was so happy, and I just saw that the girls from the bench were running to me – I could celebrate with the team. It was amazing.”

An amazing match, too. One which will help continue the exponential growth, popularity and appreciation of elite women’s football around the world. Roll on Bilbao in 2024 – try, if you love football, not to miss a minute of the campaign for Europe’s two best sides to reach San Mamés for the next final. If it’s as good as this one, we’ll all be blessed.