What an incredible game. Barcelona Femení and Wolfsburg Frauen were undoubtedly the two best teams of the 2022/23 UEFA Women’s Champions League, and they unsurprisingly delivered an all-time classic in the Final.
Despite going down 2-0 early to Wolfsburg, Barcelona quickly rallied the troops with a rapid-fire brace from Patri Guijarro to start the second half. They then found the third goal after a frenetic spell of play inside the penalty box.
Here are the player ratings from Barcelona’s 3-2 win over Wolfsburg, as they, once again, confirmed that they are the best – and the most entertaining – team on the entire planet. And I mean, the entire planet.
Barcelona Player Ratings
GK Sandra Paños, 6.0 – Could do absolutely nothing about Ewa Pajor’s brilliant opener. The ball was struck with so much power and swerve away from her that she could not possibly use her top hand to bat it away.
LB Fridolina Rolfö, 7.0 – Quiet in the first half but came up big with a goal in the second. Rolfö is such an asset for Barcelona on that left-hand side with her progression on the ball and ability to have that end product in the box.
CB Mapi León, 7.5 – You won’t find any center backs who can deliver passes like Mapi León. Her set-piece deliveries could have honestly led to two goals, that’s how good they were. She had a tremendous tackle on Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir inside the box that was worth its weight in gold. Her leadership and marking off the ball are just about perfect. León produced a second-half defensive masterclass. By the way, she cannot be faulted for the goal Alexandra Popp scored. That cross from Pajor was impossible to defend.
CB Irene Paredes, 6.0 – Missed a golden opportunity in the first half and honestly wasn’t at her best defensively.
RB Lucy Bronze, 6.5 – Made up for that giveaway in the first half with some excellent one-on-one defending in the second. That said, she should have done more to help the team going forward.
CM Patri Guijarro, 9.0 – Two brilliant goals to change the game. Patri is so good at knowing when to surge into the box to find that goal, and her ability to keep possession of the ball with smart passes was also an asset in this victory.
DM Keira Walsh, 7.0 – Solid defensively and kept things ticking over in midfield with her passing. She helped stabilize the team in the second half.
CM Aitana Bonmatí, 7.5 – Another great performance for Barcelona. Brilliant passing, produced the assist for the second goal, and kept creating chances for La Blaugrana. No doubt, the player of the tournament.
LW Mariona Caldentey, 8.0 – Tremendous, unselfish performance. She put everything on the line to win the ball for her team and start attacks, taking on the Wolfsburg defense and freeing up so much space for her teammates. Caldentey is one of the world’s best players and one of the most underappreciated.
ST Salma Paralluelo, 6.0 – Although she could have done more to take her chances, this was a decent performance from Paralluelo. She drifted across the formation to try and find opportunities and was difficult to deal with on the ball.
RW Caroline Graham Hansen, 8.5 – Changed the game with her incredible assist, absolutely roasting the Wolfsburg defense all-ends up. There isn’t a bigger game-changing winger or a better player at one-on-ones on this planet than CGH.
Wolfsburg Player Ratings
GK Merle Frohms, 6.5 – Had a good save in the first half to deny Paralluelo a sure-fire goal in a one-on-one situation.
LB Felicitas Rauch, 4.0 – A massively disappointing game from one of the best left backs of the tournament. Her one-on-one defending was nowhere near good enough for this stage.
CB Dominique Janssen, 4.0 – Shaky defensively again. She’s not doing enough to cover spaces for Wolfsburg. They may need to find a new starting center back.
CB Kathrin Hendrich, 7.0 – Had to do the work of two defenders and played very well marking Paralluelo and the others, especially considering she was booked in the first half on a nonsense call. This ref gave too many ticky-tack bookings to players, which is not something we need to see in a final. Hendrich had seven tackles and five clearances. She has been exceptional in this year’s Champions League, but that gets overlooked because of how disappointing some of her teammates around her have been defensively.
RB Lynn Wilms, 5.0 – Started the game well but then made a series of errors to help Barcelona find the third goal. Nevertheless, Wilms is one of the best young fullbacks in world football and one to watch for the future.
DM Lena Oberdorf, 4.0 – One of the best young players in the world, Oberdorf didn’t show it in this match. She was invisible on the ball, misplacing too many passes. And she did not have the desired impact defensively, as Barcelona’s midfield absolutely rolled over Wolfsburg in the second half.
DM Jill Roord, 4.0 – Another thoroughly disappointing big-game performance from Roord. She made no sort of impact going forward and could not win her battles defensively against the Barcelona midfield.
AM Svenja Huth, 6.5 – Pretty much a non-factor offensively but still had a decent game because of all the work she did defensively. Had Oberdorf and Roord been better, perhaps Huth would have been able to show her world-class quality in the attack.
LW Ewa Pajor, 9.0 – Absolutely ridiculous goal in the opening minutes. So smart to press Lucy Bronze from behind into the error and then did even better with the finish, using a technique to swerve the ball away from Paños with power instead of curling it so that the ball would curl away – with pace – from her hand, making it impossible to generate enough wrist power from that hand position. Pajor then had an inch-perfect cross for Alexandra Popp to make it 2-0. She is part of the future of football.
RW Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir, 5.0 – Worked hard for Wolfsburg but ultimately did not have the quality to make a difference in the final third, which was very surprising. Normally, she is exceptional for the Bundesliga giants.
ST Alexandra Popp, 6.0 – Scored a headed goal in a can’t-miss position, but, other than that, she was underwhelming. The all-important, legendary striker grew frustrated in the second half when Barcelona started to match her physicality.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.