Barcelona began the defence of their fourth Women's Champions League title against Paris FC at the Johan Cruyff Stadium on Tuesday, with the confirmed lineups showing Pere Romeu turning to a reshaped side for the start of the league phase. The match was scheduled for 21:00 and shown in Spain on Disney+ and on Esport3 in Catalonia.
Romeu framed the night as a reset, not a celebration. Barcelona won in Oslo 123 days earlier, but the coach said that memory was already behind them and that the team was starting again. In his view, the task was simple enough to say and hard enough to do: Barcelona were beginning over, with a new challenge and no room to live off what they had already won.
The lineup reflected that shift. Barcelona started Cata Coll, Sidney, Martina, Paredes, Brugts, Patri Guijarro, Serrajordi, Pina, Graham, Kerolin and Pajor, while Paris FC lined up Chavas, N'Dongala, Ould, Diaz, Baquerizo, Le Moguérec, Korosec, Toloba, Clara Mateo, Mendy and Viens. Michalina Diakow was the referee and Michèle Schmölzer was on VAR.
What Barcelona lacked was almost as important as who they fielded. Alexia Putellas, Mapi León, Ona Batlle, Salma Paralluelo, Txell Font, Giulia Dragoni and Martine Fenger were all missing, leaving Romeu without several of the names that helped carry the side to the title in Oslo. Even so, Barcelona still included Kerolin Nicoli, Martina Fernández, Renee van Asten and Tyler McCamey, a reminder that the squad remains deep enough to absorb losses, even if not without friction.
That is the point of a league-phase opener like this one. The 26th edition of the competition began on 22 July with 74 teams from 51 associations, and the league phase brings together 18 of the best teams in Europe. Barcelona are still the benchmark, but the first test of any defence is whether the team can look like itself when the familiar pieces are missing.
The wider road runs beyond Tuesday night. The final is set to be decided at the Estadio Nacional de Varsovia between 28 and 30 May, and Barcelona already know the route back to that stage will be judged less by the Oslo medal on the wall than by how quickly this new version of the side settles. Romeu has been clear enough about the standard: if you are in this team, you are in it to compete for everything.
