Record crowd for women’s football set as Barca smash Real Madrid

Barcelona smashed the attendance record for women’s football after a crowd of 91,553 watched them beat Real Madrid in the Champions League.

Leading 3-1 from the first leg and roared on by a partisan Nou Camp, the reigning champions won 5-2 on the night and 8-3 on aggregate to set up a last-four meeting with either Arsenal or Wolfsburg.

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The previous highest turnout for a women’s club game came in 2019 when 60,739 people saw Barca beat Atletico Madrid 2-0 at Wanda Metropolitano.

Wednesday evening’s crowd at Europe’s largest stadium also dwarfed the record for spectators at a women’s international, set when 80,203 fans witnessed the United States secure Olympic gold by beating Japan 2-1 at Wembley during London 2012.

Real briefly threatened to spoil the party after Olga Carmona’s penalty and a fine strike from Claudia Zornoza put them 2-1 ahead on the night following Mapi Leon’s early opener.

But Barcelona were not to be denied the El Clasico bragging rights on a historic evening.

Second-half goals from Aitana Bonmati, Claudia Pina, Ballon d’Or holder Alexia Putellas and Caroline Hansen comfortably sent them through.

They will discover their semi-final opponents on Thursday when 2007 winners Arsenal travel to Volkswagen Arena to take on Wolfsburg with the tie level at 1-1 following last week’s first leg.

Elsewhere, Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall expects “phenomenal” captain Kim Little to prove inspirational in her side’s bid to reach the Champions League semi-finals.

The Gunners are all square with Wolfsburg after last week’s first leg ended 1-1 at the Emirates Stadium and Little will lead Eidevall’s side in the return leg at the Volkswagon Arena on Thursday.

Eidevall