A sold-out Camp Nou was treated to a memorable performance from Barcelona as they hit six past their humiliated rivals Real Madrid and reached the Women’s Champions League semi-finals.
The runners-up last season, Barcelona were already 6-2 up from the first leg after a ruthless victory in the Spanish capital and they coasted through to the last four in style on Thursday with an emphatic 12-2 aggregate victory, setting up a semi-final showdown with the Bundesliga leaders, Bayern Munich. The German side eliminated Manchester United on Wednesday.
The Catalan outfit, who have reached five European finals in a row, winning three, are in ominously strong form and, on this showing, they will take some beating this term. They are seeking to go one better after the disappointment of losing last year’s final to Arsenal in Lisbon.
In front of a crowd of 60,067, which was a capacity attendancecrowd while the Camp Nou undergoes renovations, Barcelona turned on the style straight from the start. Alexia Putellas’s strike on a rebound, Caroline Graham Hansen’s header, Irene Paredes’s header from a corner and Ewa Pajor’s close-range finish gave the hosts a 4-0 half-time lead. The classy Putellas, marking her 500th appearance for the club, was thriving.
Graham Hansen then skilfully dinked a shot into the far corner, on the turn, to add another goal after the break, before Esmee Brugts finished off a sublime team move to make it 6-0 on the night and complete Madrid’s embarrassment. They are 13 points behind Barça at the top of the Spanish top-flight league table but this aggregate defeat underlined how far behind their rivals they really are.
The first legs of the semi-finals will be played between 24 and 26 April, before the second legs a week later between 1 and 3 May. Barcelona will have home advantage in the second leg, having been seeded for the knockout draw after topping the league phase with an unbeaten record and a +17 goal-difference from their six league-phase matches. The final is in Oslo on 23 May.