Less than eight minutes had passed when María León received the ball from Jennifer Hermoso. León moved well away from the Real Madrid goal, no opponent attacked her, the FC Barcelona defender looked so harmless. But then everything happened very quickly. León saw all that space in front of him – and decided to send the ball on a long journey. He flew and flew, ten, twenty meters, so precisely that goalkeeper Misa could stretch as she wanted, the ball was in. What followed was an explosion.
If León has already imagined this moment at one time or another, the reality should now have felt so beautiful as if it were a dream. Because that goal was cheered on by 91,553 spectators who jumped up and screamed and rejoiced – in the Camp Nou, the largest football stadium in Europe, in the quarter-finals of the Champions League against arch-rivals. There should be four more such explosions that evening and only two hits, after which it was completely quiet in this arena. In the end there was ecstasy.
With a 5-2 (1-1) win, the FC Barcelona women not only made it into the semi-finals of the Champions League. They also set a world record on Wednesday. So many people have never come to a women’s soccer game. The previous record was 90,185 spectators who watched the 1999 World Cup final between the USA and China. And now all 99,354 places at the Camp Nou had not been missing much. “I can hardly hold back my tears, it’s crazy,” Caroline Graham Hansen told Dazn. “It’s something I didn’t even dare to dream of.”
Madrid can still hope for success at first
And in view of this special atmosphere on a historic evening, not even the Madrilenians seemed too depressed. They put up a lot of resistance in the first leg before being punished with a 3-1 defeat for missed chances. But now the team around the former German national player Babett Peter hardly found their way into the game, possibly impressed by this extraordinary backdrop, but above all restricted by the hosts. In the first half, Barcelona had 70 percent possession and could hardly be separated from the game machine.
Despite the 0-1 draw, Madrid still had hope. First Olga Carmona coolly converted a hand penalty (16th minute) – and then the royals came out of the break even better: Claudia Zornoza cheekily took a shot just behind the center circle to make it 1: 2, this time it was Sandra Paños who was able to stretch as she wanted, the ball was in (48th). But Barcelona hit back relentlessly. Almost every goal testified to the technical finesse and enormous talent of the treble winner. Aitana Bonmatí (52nd) equalized to make it 2-2, then Claudia Pina finished brilliantly (55th), before world footballer Alexia Putellas increased to 4:2 with a harmless low shot (62nd) – and Graham Hansen in the 70th minute brought the finale to a thoroughly extraordinary evening.
Just missed the semifinals: Klara Bühl and the FC Bayern players have to admit defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
(Photo: Eibner/Memmler/Imago)
A little later and 800 kilometers away, a record number of viewers was also set, albeit on a smaller scale. 27,262 spectators came to the Parisian Prinzenpark for the second leg between Saint-Germain and FC Bayern – the new record for the French champions at home. The audience saw such a hard-fought game that some were already looking forward to a penalty shoot-out as the game went on. But it was Ramona Bachmann who, with a low, unstoppable shot into the lower left corner to make it 2-2, decided that it would be her team that would follow FC Barcelona to the semi-finals. Paris won the first leg 2-1.
Sandy Baltimore put PSG ahead after a corner with a shot from the right diagonally from more than 20 meters in the style of Barcelona’s León. Bayern goalkeeper Janina Leitzig saw the ball flying towards her, but misjudged it. She got to him, but couldn’t hold him. And so the Munich team was 1-0 down after 17 minutes. They were not intimidated by this, nor by the impressively loud crowd that tirelessly cheered for Paris. The answer followed promptly.
Klara Bühl released new energy in the Munich team with her shot to make it 2-1 – but that wasn’t enough
Saki Kumagai brought Bayern back into play with the 1-1 equalizer just a minute later. “Good, great, calm,” called coach Jens Scheuer onto the pitch. His biggest fear beforehand was that he would get bad news again. Because of corona infections, he had to do without seven footballers. In addition, Viviane Asseyi was yellow-suspended. Scheuer reported before departure that only two field players would be on the bench against PSG.
A new plan was needed. It worked insofar as the starting eleven that had now been put together harmonized and found ways into the opposing penalty area. The Munich women launched attacks again and again, but the shots often did not find their target. A shortcoming that was already a nuisance in the first leg and led to the 1-2 defeat, as well as poorly defending two standards.
After the break it was Klara Bühl who released new energy in her team with a powerful shot to make it 2:1 (55th). That energy that couldn’t be traded in that evening. But the amount wasn’t enough, and as time went on, Bayern made more and more bad passes. Retrieving the ball took valuable strength as PSG didn’t hold back on the counterattack. But the French weren’t successful at first either, the quarter-finals went into overtime – and then Bachmann scored.