LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Cata Coll used everything she had.
The Barcelona goalkeeper leapt to tip an on-target goal over the bar. She stabbed a foot out at the last second to deflect another net-bound strike.
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Barcelona goalkeeper Catalina Coll runs during a warm up session prior to the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Arsenal's Stina Blackstenius, right, shoots the ball to score the opening goal past Barcelona goalkeeper Catalina Coll, center, during the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati, bottom, is comforted by Barcelona President Joan Laporta during the podium ceremony after Arsenal won the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati, right, is comforted by a team staff member at the end of the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati walks past the winner trophy during the podium ceremony after Arsenal won the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
While her teammates floundered against Arsenal, Coll did all she could to keep Barcelona’s hopes alive of a third successive Women’s Champions League title.
Everything she had wasn’t enough, though. Coll could do nothing to stop an unmarked Stina Blackstenius from firing home a low shot from inside the box and giving Arsenal the most desired trophy in European women's club soccer with a 1-0 win in Lisbon on Saturday.
And, like that, Barcelona’s quest to three-peat and claim a fourth title in five years was dashed.
A side that boasted two-time Ballon d’Or winners Aitana Bonmatí and Alexia Putellas and several other world champions from Spain’s 2023 title team underperformed across the field. The highest scoring attack in Europe that had blasted all-comers fizzled out against Arsenal, lacking precision in passing and finishing touch.
Except, that is, for Coll.
She stretched high to paw a missile by Frida Maanum over in the first half. She then stood firm and guessed right when Blackstenius broke clear in the second half, using her leg to deflect her strike wide.
But she couldn't help where Barcelona most needed it: In the final meters in front of Arsenal's net.
“We played a bad first half and then when we improved, the ball just wouldn’t go in. That’s soccer,” Coll said. “Reaching a final is always a success. This is not a slump. I continue to completely believe in this team.”
Barcelona won nine straight in the competition and blew out Wolfsburg and English champion Chelsea in the knockout rounds. That is a big reason, along with the sixth consecutive Liga F title that Barcelona won this year, that Coll and her teammates pledge that they will be back and challenging for the Champions League title next season.
The disappointment for its women’s team comes after its men’s side lost to Inter Milan in a Champions League semifinal that it was moments away from winning. Barcelona was eyeing a possible European triple after its under-19 men’s team won the UEFA Youth League.
Barcelona's women are 3-3 in Champions League finals. They beat Chelsea in 2021, Wolfsburg in 2023, and Lyon in 2024, but lost in 2019 and 2022, both times to Lyon.
Bonmatí's best effort against Arsenal’s disciplined defense met the leg of a defender. Forward Claudia Pina hit the bar early in the second half, but the high-octane attack failed to make a late push for an equalizer.
The world champion playmaker said her team will build on this loss.
“We weren’t at our best level, but we gave all we had. In situations like that, football sometimes punishes you,” Bonmatí said. “We need to push onwards and use what’s happened here to our benefit in the future.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Barcelona goalkeeper Catalina Coll runs during a warm up session prior to the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Arsenal's Stina Blackstenius, right, shoots the ball to score the opening goal past Barcelona goalkeeper Catalina Coll, center, during the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati, bottom, is comforted by Barcelona President Joan Laporta during the podium ceremony after Arsenal won the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati, right, is comforted by a team staff member at the end of the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati walks past the winner trophy during the podium ceremony after Arsenal won the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
