World record crowd of 91,553 for women’s match sees Barca thrash Real Madrid

BARCELONA: A world record crowd for a women’s football match of 91,553 saw Barcelona cruise into the Champions League semifinals by thrashing Real Madrid 5-2 at Camp Nou on Wednesday to seal an 8-3 win on aggregate. The crowd figure surpassed the previous record for a women’s game when 90,185 watched the 1999 World Cup final between the United States and China at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It also smashed the previous record attendance for a club fixture, set in March 2019 as 60,739 supporters saw Barca beat Atletico Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano.

Barcelona were eager to give the fixture as much visibility as possible. The club’s 147,000 members were allowed 24 hours to book up to four free tickets, with only an administration charge due of 2.50 euros. Non-members were then able to buy tickets for between 9 to 15 euros.

The reigning European champions advance to the semifinals where they will face the winners of Arsenal and Wolfsburg, who play their second leg on Thursday, after the opening game in London finished 1-1. An historic night started with Barcelona’s team bus having to squeeze through thousands of fans singing and waving flags on its way to the stadium. Real Madrid, meanwhile, were reduced to a cameo role, even if they had their moments across this tie and will feel encouraged after pushing Barca in spells.

In both legs, Madrid started strongly only to wilt when their opponents cranked up the pressure. Madrid were already facing a monumental task to get through after a late double had taken the tie away from them in the first leg, a 3-1 victory for Barcelona giving them a commanding lead to take back to Catalonia. Barca now own seven wins out of seven in competitive meetings against Real Madrid, while