The history of the MOTW duel speaks clearly: 12 times, the teams have locked horns. 12 times, Barça were the victors.
“I really do not care about those statistics and numbers. Every match is different. Even if you face the same team you have beaten one month ago, you can lose to them in the next match,” says Ortega, who has the “highest respect” for Aalborg. “They have strong players, a great coach and a brilliant team. And they are getting better year by year.”
Either side of the 2023/24 final against Aalborg, Barça won three Champions League matches. They lost the last two games of the 2023/24 group phase before wins in both legs of the quarter-finals on the path to the trophy. In 2024/25, they have won all group phase games so far.
“We started well, when you look upon the results. But, though all of our players are fit — including Hampus Wanne, who just had his comeback — all of them are tired. They had a long season, followed by the Olympic Games and then a short term of preparation. Now, we have one training session to prepare for Aalborg. But we know it from previous years.”
Compared with their Danish opponents, Barça have played four matches more — at the Club World Championship in Egypt, where the record winners missed the final after an overtime defeat in the semi against later-on champions Veszprém.
“We failed with a last-second penalty, missed the final, and then you do not care that much whether you finish third or fourth,” says Ortega regarding the final ranking, after losing the bronze-medal match against home side Al Ahly.
“But now, our full focus is on the Champions League,” says the Barça coach, who has experience coaching a Danish club, Kolding, after his first major task, at Veszprém. Later, he took over German side Hanover-Burgdorf, before returning home to where his career started. For the 2024 Olympic Games, he was interim coach for Japan after Dagur Sigurdsson quit to become Croatia national team coach.