Chelsea face their
UEFA Women’s Champions League nemeses Barcelona on Thursday, with
Aitana Bonmatí’s presence a reminder of the standard they still
aspire to.
For Chelsea, success in the UEFA Women’s Champions League has
become an obsession, one which Barcelona have almost singlehandedly
prevented them fulfilling in recent years.
It was understandable, then, that in their bid to be the best,
they set out to acquire the best. This was evident in
successfully luring Lucy Bronze and then Keira Walsh back to the
WSL from Barcelona, joining in July 2024 and January 2025,
respectively.
But if Chelsea had got their way, those two wouldn’t have been
the only ones to swap blaugrana for blue.
Aitana Bonmatí was the subject of strong interest from Chelsea
in 2024; given she’d already won the Ballon d’Or back-to-back at
the time, such a move would’ve been as significant a statement of
intent as was possible.
Chelsea were desperate to make the strides needed after their –
albeit controversial – 2024 Champions League semi-final elimination
by Barcelona, who became European champions for the third time in
four seasons. Taking Bonmatí might’ve been the decisive needle
mover.
But in September 2024, Bonmatí signed a new contract with
Barcelona, keeping her at her “home” until 2028. Chelsea’s interest
supposedly helped her securing what was reported at the time as
being the most lucrative contract in the women’s game.
And as it happened, Bonmatí went on to play an instrumental role
as Barcelona dismantled Chelsea in the 2024-25 Champions League
semi-finals, helping them to an 8-2 aggregate win that provided
another reminder of the gulf Sonia Bompastor’s side still needed to
bridge.
They renew hostilities again at Stamford Bridge on Thursday, but
since their last meeting, it could be argued that some of the
mystique and aura that once reflected the near-invincibility of
Barcelona has been diminished by their shock Champions League final
loss to Arsenal in May.
So long as Bonmatí is on the field, however, Barcelona know they
have a potential trump card.
The Spanish champions certainly aren’t a one-woman team, and
Bonmatí is just one part of an exceptional midfield alongside Patri
Guijarro and Alexia Putellas. But what makes Bonmatí so integral –
and why Chelsea were so keen – is the breadth of her influence.
Of course, there are the ‘headline’ goals and assists numbers
that do a reasonable job of highlighting how decisive she can be;
for instance, since the start of the 2024-25 season, Bonmatí’s 27
Liga F goal involvements is the fourth most in the division even
though she plays as part of Barcelona’s midfield three.
And yet, goal involvement metrics hardly scratch the surface
when outlining what Bonmatí brings to her team, and that in itself
should be seen as a hallmark of her quality.
First and foremost, she is exactly what we’ve come to expect of
the archetypal Barcelona midfielder when in possession. She
controls the ball with that quintessential effortlessness of a La
Masia graduate, and like is often said about the greatest players,
Bonmatí almost always seems to have time.
It’s like she’s a step ahead. There’s a sense she always knows
what she’ll do next before the ball is even under her spell, which
is why she’s such a smart operator in congested areas.
In that respect, her high football IQ is probably best
pinpointed by her ability under pressure.
During Spain’s run to the 2025 UEFA Women’s Championship final
in the summer, 88% (365/415) of Bonmati’s touches were under
pressure, which was the greatest proportion of any player to have
at least 65 touches. So, that paints a picture of how much
attention the opposition paid her.
But her use of the ball remained excellent in such situations,
completing 87.7% of her passes (270/308) under pressure. Among
non-defenders to attempt at least 80 passes under pressure, her
success rate was bettered by only three players.
Furthermore, she ranked joint third for chances created via
passes under high pressure (9), while 14.6% of her total passes
qualified as line-breaking passes under pressure, the fourth
highest among non-defenders (100+ passes).
In short, then, she thrived and played a crucially influential
role for Spain despite being so keenly watched by opponents,
slicing teams open in the process. We also have to remember she’d
been in hospital with viral meningitis a matter of days before the
tournament began.
Clearly, Bonmatí’s technique is central to her effectiveness
under pressure, but that technical quality also makes her an
incredibly rounded midfielder. Whether bursting forward with the
ball, holding on to it in deeper areas in anticipation of the
perfect passing lane opening up, or receiving possession in tight
spaces, she just never looks out of place.
But when thinking about where her talents are put to
most devastating use, it would have to be around the edge of the
opposition’s box.
Bonmatí operates with real intricacy in attack. The way she
combines with teammates in that area outside the box is often a joy
to behold because she makes it look so simple when the margin for
error is tiny.
Delicate layoffs have almost become a niche trademark of hers,
with her 32 lay-offs – defined as laying the ball into the path of
a teammate’s run – the most in Liga F last season, and her nine
this term rank her second. While they haven’t all been notable,
this output does reflect the quality she offers as a link-up
player.
Of course, there’s also the pure creative side to her game.
It cannot be ignored just how inventive she is, with her 84
chances created in open play more than anyone else in Liga F since
the start of last season. And the map below shows how many of those
chances are concentrated around the opposition’s area.
But then there’s the other side to that creativity that won’t be
shown by the more conventional metrics such as chances created,
assists or even expected assists; it’s the side you may only notice
by focusing on her. And this is where her broader influence becomes
clearer.
Yes, Bonmatí creates chances with a regularity to rival the most
creative attackers, but then she also has a habit of finding other
creators in positions where they can do damage. We refer
to these passes as ‘secondary chances created’, defined as when a
player makes the pass before the one that leads to a shot.
It’s a metric that tends to reward the more inventive and
progressive deep-lying playmakers by helping quantify the value of
smart distribution in build-up phases.
Since the start of the 2024-25 Liga F season, Bonmatí’s 62
secondary chances created in open play is the most of all players
in the division, and 16 of those – also a league-high record in
that time – have led to goals.
In fact, you can go even deeper than that.
The number of unique open-play passing moves a player is
involved in can give an idea of their importance to a team’s
build-up play, and Bonmatí’s been a part of 28 more shot-ending
moves (307) than anyone else in Liga F since the start of last
season.
Although she does drop to fourth (134) when you remove shots and
chances created from the total, the three ahead of her (Mapi León,
Patri Guijarro and Ona Batlle) all play deeper, less-pressurised
roles than Bonmatí.
It’s unmistakable, then, that Bonmatí’s distribution is a vital
component of her game, and combined with her intelligence, it’s
probably what helps her hold such influence over a team.
But it shouldn’t be overlooked what she brings out of possession
as well, because that would be a disservice to how complete she is
as a footballer.
In Liga F over the past year and a bit, her 52 possession
regains in the final third is the most of anyone and she remains as
high as second (1.8) on a per-90 basis (810+ mins played). This is
obviously important considering how quickly Barcelona look to win
the ball back, and she’s clearly a key component in their high
press.
But Bonmatí is also an effective competitor on a one-vs-one
level. ‘True tackles’ rewards defenders for getting a touch on the
ball even if their opponents retain possession, and it penalises
those who commit fouls when attempting a tackle. It gives a more
nuanced view of player effectiveness when defending in one-vs-one
situations, and Bonmatí comes out well, boasting a ‘true tackle’
success rate of 71.9% to rank 15th out of 203 players (40+ ‘true
tackles) since the start of 2024-25. Among the same players, her
10.4% ‘dribbled past’ rate is the 10th lowest.
There’s little polarisation when it comes to perceptions of
Bonmatí’s quality. At 27, she’s already a true great, as solidified
by her three successive Ballon d’Or wins, and a player of immense
authority – it’s no wonder her father likens her on-field persona
to that of a “cop”.
But for a certain section of the women’s football world, there
remains an itch Bonmatí’s yet to scratch, and it comes back to
comments she made herself shortly after signing her new contract,
as she blasted the Spanish football authorities for failing to
establish continued growth for Liga F.
“If I started to look at Liga F, without taking Barcelona into
account, I wouldn’t have stayed here,” she told The
Athletic. “That’s how clear I say it. It’s sad to see how
other leagues are overtaking us at an incredible speed when we have
the potential to be a top league – because of the successes of
Barcelona and the national team. [The league is] stagnating, it’s
not getting any better.”
Since the Spanish women’s top flight was rebranded to Liga F for
2022-23, Barcelona have won the title each season with at least an
eight-point cushion, and across the three full seasons to date,
they’ve won 95.6% of their games and had a goal difference of +347
– rivals Real Madrid had a goal difference of +155 over the same
period. Similarly, Barcelona remain the only Spanish club to reach
the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League.
Beyond the Champions League, the competitiveness of the
competitions Barcelona play in is minimal – as the
Opta Power Rankings graphic above highlights. That hasn’t been
an issue yet as they’ve won six league titles on the spin and
reached six of the past seven UWCL finals, so maybe the club will
continue to excel despite the lack of a challenge in Liga F.
But if they don’t, Bonmati’s already delivered her warning.
“The most important thing is the football level of the team I
want to play for. I am an ambitious person and I want to keep
winning,” she also said in that interview with The
Athletic.
Barcelona’s long-term trajectory may depend on whether Liga F
can match their ambition, but Bonmatí’s own hunger has never been
in doubt. It is what pushed her to stay, to demand more, to lead.
And it is what Chelsea must now confront again.
Her presence on Thursday is more than a tactical problem; it is
a reminder of the standards Chelsea have been chasing for
years.
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