Aitana Bonmatí wants to regain her feel for the game and calls Barça “unstoppable”

“This team is unstoppable,” Aitana Bonmatí said after Barça’s 8-0 Champions League victory over Köge. Her praise for the collective came with a more personal priority: to regain her feel for the game as she gets minutes, rather than chase a goal. She put it plainly: “That I didn’t score? It doesn’t matter. The important thing is to get my feel back; that is my goal, not scoring.”

Bonmatí played a further 63 minutes as she continued her gradual return to action. She did not score, but helped create Barça’s third goal: after Sydney Schertenleib delivered a cross, Bonmatí set up Esmee Brugts to finish. The victory reinforced Barça’s position as outright leaders in the Champions League. Seven different players scored, a spread of goals that Bonmatí linked to the team’s collective effort: “Almost everyone scored, and that says a lot about the effort from the whole team.”

The midfielder feels that she is improving. After five months out, from December until early May, with a trans-syndesmotic fracture of the fibula in her left ankle, she returned to the Champions League starting line-up. “I’m very happy to make my first Champions League start since the injury, and to be playing again and getting my feel back. I’ve played my best minutes. I’m building rhythm and confidence,” she said. She added that the summer break had helped her with the pain. Her return is taking shape in stages, with playing time and a renewed feel for the game as the priorities.

She also said she felt comfortable on the artificial turf at Köge’s stadium, which she considered better than many natural-grass pitches. On Monday, her absence from the Ballon d’Or ceremony in London was due to her lengthy spell out: she was not among the 30 nominees. She congratulated the winners and praised the collective contribution behind the honours. Alexia Putellas succeeded her in the main award’s roll of honour; Bonmatí said the presence of many Barça players reflected the team’s work, and sent her congratulations to the winners.

The next fixture is against Arsenal, the 2025 champions, on Thursday 12 November at 18:45 at Spotify Camp Nou. Bonmatí acknowledged the quality of their squad but did not frame the match in terms of fear: “Every match is different. Arsenal have a great squad, player by player. We’ll focus on the result and hope lots of people come to the stadium.”