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.