Barcelona vs Wolfsburg, Women’s Champions League: Final Score 5-1, Barça Femení dominate, win at Camp Nou

Barcelona Femení have taken a giant step towards a place in the Women’s Champions League Final thanks to a dominant 5-1 win over Wolfsburg in front of a record-breaking crowd at Camp Nou on Friday night’s semi-final first leg. Barça were the better team from the very start and played beautiful football for all 90 minutes, scoring five goals and making their job a lot easier ahead of next week’s second leg.

FIRST HALF

Barça were in complete control of the semi-final from the very start of the game, scoring twice in the first 10 minutes with the opener from Aitana Bonmatí and a sensational second goal by Caroline Graham Hansen, and the home team continued to dominate.

Wolfsburg came to Camp Nou hoping to avoid a big loss to have some hope ahead of the second leg, but they simply couldn’t deal with a sensational Barça team. The visitors were all over the place trying to deal with Barça’s passing and movement, and the Blaugrana kept creating chance after chance.

It took them a while to find more goals, but two more came their way: Jenni Hermoso made it 3-0 after a breathtaking passage of play down the right wing, and captain Alexia Putellas was at the receiving end of a marvelous through ball by Patri Guijarro to add a fourth a few minutes before halftime.

At the end of the first 45 minutes Barça were as dominant as ever and with a huge advantage, and they had a real chance to extend the lead and wrap up the tie in the second half.

SECOND HALF

Barça continued to dominate the game to start the second half and nearly added a fifth through Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic, but the goal was ruled out for offside. The Blaugrana remained in full control and kept creating chances, but Wolfsburg keeper Almuth Schult made some big saves to keep Barça from scoring more.

Then the visitors gave themselves some hope in the tie after an excellent counter-attack and a great finish by Jill Roord to make it 4-1 with 20 minutes to go. Barça seemed to wake up after conceding, and Asisat Oshoala and Claudia Pina came off the bench to make the attack even more dangerous.

Barça easily could have scored three or four in the final minutes, but Schult kept making one big save after another to keep her team alive. But there was no stopping Alexia Putellas, who won a penalty in the 85th minute and scored her second of the night to finally add the fifth goal Barça had deserved throughout the period.

Barça couldn’t add one more goal but there was reason for a huge ovation at the end of the game: for the second time in less than a month Camp Nou set the world record for attendance at a women’s match, with 91,648 fans watching a vintage Femení performance.

The final whistle came to end another historic night for women’s football at the Greatest Stadium on Earth, and Femení’s bid for a Double Treble continues. What a team.

Barcelona: Paños; Marta, Paredes, Mapi, Rolfö; Aitana (Mariona 80’), Patri, Alexia (Engen 90’); Graham (Leila 90’), Hermoso (Oshoala 73’), Crnogorcevic (Pina 73’)

Goals: Aitana (3’), Graham (10’), Hermoso (33’), Alexia (38’, pen 85’)

Wolfsburg: Schult; Wedemeyer, Hendrich, Jansen, Rauch; Lattwein, Popp (Pajor 61’), Roord (Blomqvist 76’ (Starke 90+2’)); Huth, Wassmuth, Jónsdóttir (Knaak 90+2’)

Goal: Roord (70’)