Barcelona made the process short with Hammarby the last time the teams met in the Champions League, when they won 9-0 in Spain.
It wasn’t really that bad in tonight’s return match in Stockholm in front of 18,746 spectators.
“Learned a lot”
But Barcelona still won with a clear 3–0, thus ensuring that Hammarby will not be allowed to play any further when the tournament enters the playoffs this spring. It had basically been done before, but there was a minimal theoretical possibility of advancement if the team had won big tonight, and the results went the right way in the last round.
– I think that Hammarby learned a lot in the meantime from each match and got better. If you look at the first match against Barcelona versus this one, a lot has happened, says SVT Sports expert Hanna Marklund.
Barcelona took the lead after just seven minutes, when Polish Ewa Pajor rolled in 1-0 from close range.
Well-deserved away win
Just before the break, the same player basically punctuated the match, when she made it 2–0 after a corner, and with just over ten minutes left in regular time, Aitana Bonmati made it 3–0 via a Hammarby foot.
Barcelona’s victory was clearly deserved. The team was the better from start to finish, although Hammarby also had a couple of dangerous chances. Among other things, Cathinka Tandberg came close to reducing the score to 2–1 on a free kick at the beginning of the second half.
– I actually thought I scored, but it was a good save. It’s sad, these are the situations you want to set as a forward. I just have to train more, she tells SVT Sport.
To miss a chance like that, is it frustrating?
– I thought about it for a while, but you know that suddenly a new situation comes, so I just tried to forget it. But it is clear that it is difficult, it is 2-0 there and then we would have entered the game, so it feels a bit like it is my fault.
– We had learned our lesson since the last match. I think the performance today is a big step forward from the last match, says Hammarby’s Jonna Andersson to SVT Sport.
Although Hammarby’s hopes of promotion are now gone, one match remains in the group stage, away to Austrian side St Pölten next Wednesday.