To have the opportunity to win the Champions League at a new club is great

I’m happy to say I am back and in contention to play in this weekend’s Champions League final following keyhole surgery on my knee a month ago.

I returned to training with the team last week and I’m back to normal now. I had no choice but to have the surgery when I did but I was quite fortunate the only European game I missed was Chelsea at home.

That was a tough watch straight after my operation but I was able to be there in the stands at Camp Nou. I did get told off for not using my crutches, though.

The plan all along had been that I would be back for the final, as long as all went well, and so far it has.

What from the outside might have seemed a massive blow, a setback to my chances of playing both in the Netherlands this weekend and for England at the World Cup, was something I was calm about. I have had six operations on that knee now so I know the rehabilitation involved.

I spoke to Sarina Wiegman ahead of the announcement of the England World Cup squad today but really she just wanted to make sure I was okay.

Right now, it’s all about the Champions League final.

The competition was always a big deal for me in my time at Lyon, where I was fortunate enough to win it three seasons in a row.

I have wanted to win it with a second club and knew moving to Barcelona in the summer would give me a good chance to do that.

It is the competition that is held in the highest prestige domestically and is also the hardest to win. To have the opportunity to do so at a new club in a new country is great.

I said at the start of the season: ‘We shouldn’t be thinking just about getting to the final, we need to win it.’ The feeling of approaching a big tie never changes for me.

Looking back, I have had some of the best moments and experiences of my life in games like this.

I have been lucky enough to play at World Cups, Olympic Games and Champions League finals – all 
life-changing moments. I always want more memories and more experiences and wonder what I will get from this one. Win, lose or draw there is always something to remember.

It took just one Champions League outing for me to think: ‘I belong here.’ The same applied after my debut for England. The buzz of the big occasion is what I crave the most: I prefer those matches.

I feel more confident in that kind of environment. This is when I feel most excited. I thrive on the pressure. For example, I played in the 2009 FA Cup final for Sunderland against Arsenal. I won player of the match and, although we lost, I thought: ‘This is for me.’

So I am fully focused on beating Wolfsburg and winning my first European title with Barca and my fourth overall.

We already have La Liga in the bag and have the strongest squad in the world in my eyes. Winning the Champions League would cap my first campaign in Spain perfectly.

It’s time to size up potential venues

THERE are two points to make about the Champions League final in Eindhoven.

Firstly, maybe we could have played it in a bigger stadium given how quickly the 35,000-capacity Philips Stadion sold out. The appetite to go to the game was obviously there, and it is a great city and a great venue for the final, but it would have been nice to have had more fans there.

The final venues are chosen so far ahead of time but I do feel Barca sparked the appeal of staging Champions League games in big stadiums, something everyone is doing now, so we could have done with somewhere larger on this occasion.

Secondly, we are at the point where so many women’s matches sell out that we don’t need to speak about it.

Every week, somewhere in Europe, a stadium is full of fans for the women’s game. It’s becoming the norm.

Lucy Bronze is an ambassador for Team Kenya, who involve entire communities in gender equality so girls in rural Kenya can create their own bright futures – teamkenya.org.uk

Source: Read Full Article