Bonmati’s tears: Brilliant but still beaten by Arsenal

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This was Arsenal’s moment but the eye was drawn to the player in a Barcelona shirt whose day this was supposed to be. Aitana Bonmati is the outstanding performer in the women’s game but this time the Champions League trophy had eluded her.

She was in tears upon the final whistle, hunched down, head in hands, beaten. Bonmati was consoled by Leah Williamson but many minutes had passed before any of her own team-mates dared approach her. This was a very personal grief in a very public setting.

For what felt like an age, Bonmati trudged around the penalty box that Barcelona had struggled to penetrate for the previous 90 minutes and more. A lone figure, she was the last up to collect the medal and the last still to be applauding as Arsenal celebrated.

While other players huddled together or looked away, Bonmati forced herself to watch on, as if this were her penance. She repeated this when saluting the fans too. It went on for well over half an hour all told. Maybe these things do cut differently for the greats.

There was a hug with her mother and still time for an animated tactical discussion with Barcelona technical director Marc Vives. Arsenal were parading the trophy but Bonmati was still processing, still trying to compute how this game had not bent to her own will.

It must have been an alien feeling for an alien of a player. Bonmati had won three of the previous four Champions League finals with Barcelona, the player of the match in two of them. A landslide winner of the last two Ballons d’Or, a threepeat would still be no surprise.

This child of La Masia, one who wears the No 14 shirt in homage to Johan Cruyff, counts Xavi Hernandez among her many admirers. Pep Guardiola said that she was the player who reminded him of Andres Iniesta – and that comparison is a compliment for Iniesta.

In Lisbon, as the great and the good of the game gathered for Europe’s showpiece, fellow players spoke in reverential terms about her genius. And they are in no doubt that it is genius. The technique is beyond compare. Bonmati glides. But there is more here.

Speaking to Tatiana Pinto of Atletico Madrid, winner of 115 caps for Portugal, she tries to explain. “It is how smart she is and how quick she is to move into space,” Pinto tells Sky Sports. “It is how available she is to receive the ball.” Brazilian legend Tamires agrees.

“Yeah, I think it is her constant movement,” Tamires tells Sky Sports. “It is just so hard for the person who is having to mark her to catch her because she is always thinking ahead of the game and she is always moving towards the right space all the time.”

‘She has that magic’

A chat with former Arsenal favourite Anita Asante proved particularly illuminating. Asante is a coach now and expertly breaks down what makes Bonmati so special. “In England, we often relate hard work to out-of-possession work,” she tells Sky Sports.

“We do not often reframe the game in the same way in terms of in possession. Players work equally as hard to get on the ball, stay on the ball and either be an option or create space for others. To me, that is hard work. To do it constantly, that is very hard work.

“Bonmati is always thinking about how to challenge the opposition player’s decision-making. What spaces am I dragging that player into? She might not even be involved in the first phase but she sees the game ahead of others. That is her game intelligence.

“And when she does receive the ball, she is always scanning so when you add in her technical skills then she is able to receive under pressure and evade that pressure with ease. It is a massive technical skill to be able to do that and be comfortable doing it.

“To be comfortable enough to get out of trouble, be locked in but get out of it, she has that sprightliness. That kind of spring to get away from people in tight spaces, to draw a player towards the ball and then spin away. That is what she has. She has that magic.”

Rest below their best

And yet, against a spirited Arsenal side, one that defended resolutely and attacked the spaces behind Barcelona’s defence, none of it proved enough. Bonmati stuck to her principles, trusted in the team, but there was always an Arsenal body in the way.

They blocked three of her shots, while the many chances that she created directly for others were missed. Many more of her promptings fashioned openings saved or squandered. Bonmati is a team player. She needed her team to play better than this.

Alexia Putellas was well below her best. On 65 minutes, Bonmati showed for the ball but Caroline Graham Hansen opted for a shot from an absurd angle. On 82, Bonmati scooped the ball cleverly into the path of Ona Batlle but she made a mess of the cross.

Sometimes the scalpel is just not as effective as the sledgehammer. And besides, it was Beth Mead who provided the game’s key moment of subtlety at the other end, with that reverse pass to Stina Blackstenius ending Barcelona and Bonmati’s quadruple dream.

At the age of 27, there will be many more moments for the world’s best player to reassert her grip on the women’s game. The Copa de la Reina is just a fortnight away. Spain are favourites to win Euro 2025 this summer and add that prize to the World Cup won in 2023.

In that context, maybe it is a little odd to put the focus on her falling short this once rather than the myriad of marvellous stories among the underdogs of Arsenal. But there was something compelling about watching this emotional reckoning for an elite athlete.

Such is the fascination of football. She was the best in the world going into the game and still clearly the best in the world at the end of it. But as Arsenal celebrated, Aitana Bonmati, feeling that weight of responsibility that comes with her greatness, could only sob.

Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games next season

From next season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.

And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.

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