Few teams have thwarted Barcelona in their ruthless prime, but the Champions League is Lyon’s playground. Although the Catalan club have provided the bulk of the Spain World Cup winners who have swept up individual awards in recent years and lifted domestic silverware aplenty, the French giants maintain bragging rights in Europe.
Lyon have beaten Barcelona in two Champions League finals, have never lost to them in the competition and hope to complete a hat-trick of final victories against them at San Mamés in Bilbao on Saturday.
The Blaugrana have two Champions League titles from the past three seasons, earning critical experience, but Lyon have won eight and no one understands the competition, or how to frustrate Barcelona, quite like them.
In the dugout for the French champions, who finished 11 points clear of Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1, is Sonia Bompastor, the first person to win the Women’s Champions League as a player and as a manager.
The 43-year-old former France midfielder played for Lyon for six years, across two spells, twice winning the Champions League, before her retirement in 2013. Then she worked in Lyon’s academy for eight years before being appointed manager of the first team in 2021.
Heavily linked with the vacant Chelsea job, after Emma Hayes’s departure, Saturday’s final is likely to be Bompastor’s last with the club that has shaped so much of her, and that she has been responsible for shaping so much.
For a side such as Chelsea desperately seeking European success, Bompastor is the perfect match, but who is she?
Selma Bacha, who caught the attention of Bompastor in Lyon’s academy before progressing to the senior side, describes the manager as a “fierce competitor” with a “heart of gold”.
“The first time I saw her, I was still a child, at the OL academy,” the left-sided player says. “I was impressed, as I am every time we meet professionals, but I remember that she particularly impressed me with something she did. I don’t know if she remembers it. I was 10 and at the end-of-year party organised by the club, she gave me her boots, which I still have at home.”
There are many who can speak of Bompastor’s qualities. Hayes, who takes over as the US women’s national team manager this month, was effusive in her praise before a match between Chelsea and Lyon last season, having been on the coaching staff of Washington Freedom in 2010 when Bompastor was part of the squad.
“What a brilliant player,” she said on Chelsea’s website. “An unbelievable left-back with an unbelievable wand of a left boot. I managed to coach her in a team that had Homare Sawa and Abby Wambach. She was just a cultured, brilliant footballer that’s very quiet, cheeky, funny – the media might not always see that about her. It’s no surprise to me that her and Camille [Abily, her assistant] have done well working together.”
Bacha says: “I remember the great leader, OL captain with an incredible left foot. As a coach, she was able to maintain this leadership, which is reflected in the way she directs her group, instilling confidence while remaining a fierce competitor. As a person, when you get to know her privately, you realise that she’s very generous and always tries to put you in the best possible conditions to give your best. A heart of gold.”
Bacha also plays on the left, as a full-back or winger, and has benefited from her manager’s knowledge of the position. “I’ve come a long way in my game management and in my approach to the challenges I face,” she says. “Over the last few seasons, I’ve made a lot of progress and so I’m expected to do a lot more. Her experience at the highest level has helped me to manage these changes, both when things are going well and when they’re a bit more difficult.”
Bompastor has helped Bacha become more demanding of herself and encouraged her to focus on her faults as much as her qualities. “She instils the desire to surpass oneself, to never be satisfied with what you’ve got and to rely on what you’ve got at every level, whether physical, tactical or in the mental approach to matches,” she says.
Bompastor is composed on the touchline but behind that composure is a fire. “She’s someone who lives her training sessions and matches with passion and intensity,” says Bacha. “She’s a born competitor, and that’s where her high standards come from. She has a strong character, you can hear her from afar, and she shares her energy and determination to motivate the group at all times.”
Asked how Bompastor prepares them for a final, and whether it looks different to other games, Bacha says: “We’re bound to approach a final a little differently. We know what’s at stake and what it means in terms of emotional management. Tactically, physically and mentally, we’re still as serious as ever, and we’ve been working all season to be ready for this match.
“It’s not really a question of it being the same or different, it’s more a question of seeing each match of the season as a stage in the work we’ve done to get to this point. When the game kicks off, the odds are always 50-50, and then it’s up to us to prove that the work we’ve put in will enable us to win.”
Before the final against Barcelona in 2022, a piece of advice that Bompastor gave Bacha has stuck with her. “She told me: ‘Your worst enemy is yourself. Be sure of your strength when you go out on the pitch, and you’ll be one of the best in the world.’”
