Women’s Barcelona- Real Madrid match sees record crowd

The Barcelona-Real Madrid match in the Champions League quarter-finals has become the Women’s game with the most spectators in the history of the sport.

On Wednesday 30 March, 91,533 spectators filled out the Camp Nou stadium, Europe’s largest football stadium, beating the previous record held by the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final between the United States and China that had 90,195 spectators.

Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-2 which has lead them to the Champions League semi-finals with an 8-3 aggregate win.

Speaking of their win, Barcelona player and Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas said: “It was super magical. The game ended and the fans didn’t want to leave. It was incredible.”

It was the first time that the female Barcelona players had played at Camp Nou in front of a crowd. Up until this point it had been impossible due to covid restrictions. Normally the women’s team holds its matches at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, which holds around 6,000 fans, a much smaller number than Camp Nou’s 99,000 capacity. The message “More than empowerment”, that was featured on a stadium-wide mosaic across its seats, marked the historic achievement for women‘s football.

Their semi-final opponents are yet to be seen, with Arsenal taking on Wolfsburg on Thurday 31 March.