Barcelona reach third UWCL final in four years

Barcelona qualified for the UEFA Women’s Champions League final, but their 45-game winning streak came to an end on Saturday as they were beaten 2-0 by Wolfsburg.

Despite the loss, Barca are on to a third UWCL final in four years on the back of a 5-3 aggregate win over two legs.

Second-half goals from Tabea Wassmuth and Jill Roord sealed the win for Wolfsburg at the Volkswagen Arena, but it wasn’t enough to turn around last week’s first leg 5-1 defeat at Camp Nou.

Barca, who beat Chelsea to win the competition for the first-ever time last season, will meet Lyon, who beat Paris Saint-Germain 5-3 on aggregate in the other semifinal, in this year’s decider in Turin on May 21.

Jonatan Giraldez‘s side have already won the league and the Spanish Supercopa this season and remain on track for a Quadruple, with a Copa de la Reina semifinal to come in addition to a second successive Champions League final.

Wolfsburg will seek consolation in the fact they are the first side to beat Barca since June. They also remain on track to regain the league title they lost to Bayern Munich last season, and are in the DFB Pokal final against Potsdam.

Wolfsburg broke their own attendance record on the night, with 22,057 fans watching the win over Barca after the attendance record in women’s football was broken last week when 91,648 people watched the first leg at Camp Nou.

The first half was a cagey affair as Barca protected their four-goal advantage and Wolfsburg were wary of leaving too much space at the break by attacking too soon.

Barca dominated possession, but were restricted to half chances. Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic missed their best chance of the first half from close range after goalkeeper Sandra Panos had saved from Roord at the other end.

Wolfsburg began the second half with much more intent. Wassmuth, via a deflection, hammered home the first goal of the game from just outside the box in the 47th minute.

Roord then added the second on the hour mark. She stole the ball from Patricia Guijarro and found the bottom corner from long range. Panos was frozen to the spot.

That fuelled belief of a comeback, with the aggregate score reduced to 5-3, but the next goal never arrived.

Barca regained some control of the game and it wasn’t until late on that Wolfsburg rallied. Ewa Pajor’s rasping effort was tipped behind by Panos and there was pinball in the box from the resulting corner. Wassmuth’s shot was blocked and the danger fizzled out.