The inexorable comeback began with Barcelona Femení at their apparent lowest, down multiple goals in a Champions League final for the third time in five years.
For half a decade, they'd been the ascendant force in women's soccer. They'd built a superteam around homegrown stars. They'd drawn record-smashing crowds and demonstrated the sport's limitless potential. They'd won Spanish league titles with goal differentials over 100 — but they had one fault, one hurdle between their greatness and undisputed preeminence, at the final stage of Europe's top club competition. And here it was again.
Barca entered Saturday's final as prohibitive favorites over Wolfsburg. By halftime, they were 2-0 down, and most of the 33,147 fans inside Eindhoven's Phillips Arena were stunned.
But by full-time, they were 3-2 winners, and European champions, and unquestionably the queens of their sport.
After 45 minutes, they were questioned. By the 50th minute, they were level, and an eventual triumph seemed inevitable. Patri Guijarro, the embodiment of versatility, turned in a clever team goal less than three minutes into the second half. Two minutes later, she swept into the penalty box for another.
Wolfsburg held out for 20 minutes thereafter, then self-destructed under unbearable Barca pressure. Fridolina Rolfö pounced on a mess in the penalty box. The side-netting rippled, and everybody wearing blaugrana exploded. The comeback was complete.
Barca had been here before and crumbled. They had conceded four to Lyon inside 30 minutes in 2019. They had given up three in 33 minutes a season ago. But this team, this superteam, was too good and battle-tested to crumble again.
"I had a big flashback from last final," winger Carolina Graham Hansen admitted in a postgame interview. But then, staring down the 2-0 hole at halftime, she and Barca turned to their talent, and decided: "Not gonna happen again."