In the premiere, Hammarby had the opportunity to burn off plenty of fine chances. That space doesn't exist in Barcelona on Wednesday evening.
Barça has been Europe's best football team in recent seasons and won the Champions League in 2021, 2023, and 2024.
It's enormous. It's world-class players. For me, who is young, it's very cool to get to meet such players. It requires that you raise your level to keep up, says Hammarby's 20-year-old forward Ellen Wangerheim.
Unexpected loss
But Barcelona, with Swedish national team star Fridolina Rolfö in the team, is not invincible. That was shown in the Champions League premiere last week, which Manchester City unexpectedly won 2–0.
And Hammarby players come filled with self-confidence after themselves having started their first CL adventure with a 2–0 win against S:t Pölten.
We created a lot and should maybe have scored more goals. And that becomes very important in these matches. Because we won't get as many chances against Barcelona and Manchester City, says Norwegian Vilde Hasund, one of the goal scorers against S:t Pölten.
Hammarby may be debutants in these contexts, but they're not leaning back and enjoying just being in the Champions League. The goal is to advance from the group.
It's clear that we're underdogs, but I don't think we should be afraid of any team. We know that we have qualities and should only focus on being able to beat any team, says forward Cathinka Tandberg.
Aiming for the quarterfinals
Hammarby's coach Martin Sjögren says that he notices that the team's progress has made an impact in Europe. And Barcelona shouldn't take anything for granted at home at the Johan Cruijff Stadium.
It's of course cool to get to meet Barcelona. But it's about not having too much respect for these big dragons. Our ambition is that we should make it to the quarterfinals.
Now we won the first group stage match, and that means we're top 16 in Europe. And if we continue to do well, it's clear that the rest of Europe will know who Hammarby is.
Wednesday, October 16, 21.00: Barcelona (away).
Tuesday, November 12, 21.00: Manchester City (a).
Thursday, November 21, 18.45: Manchester City (home).
Thursday, December 12, 21.00: Barcelona (h).
Wednesday, December 18, 18.45: S:t Pölten (a).
The top two teams in the group advance to the quarterfinals.
