Futbol Club Barcelona's victory in the semi-finals of the Women's Champions League against Chelsea this Thursday is an enormous success and confirms an exceptional trajectory that, without a doubt, needs to be given all the acclaim it deserves. Even more important is the consistency with which the team has reached finals in recent years, because this year's Champions final in the Dutch city of Eindhoven will be the fourth which the blaugrana have played in the last five years. Previously the team had been at Budapest, Gothenburg and Turin.
By qualifying for the final, Barça will have the opportunity to win the Women's Champions League cup for the second time against the winner of the other semi-final, between Arsenal and Wolfsburg, which will be decided on Monday in London after a two-all draw in the first leg. It is obvious that an excellent job has been done by different managers to build a winning team that has no comparison in Europe, because another of the characteristics of this European trophy is that if Barça has reached four finals in the last five years, they will have faced three different opponents, who have each got to the final themselves through different groups, meaning that they have avoided a match with the blaugrana until the final.
This makes it a team with an exceptional and almost unbeatable record. The figures in continental football are clear, but if we go to the Spanish women's football league, of the 25 games that have been played, they have won the lot and, at the moment, have 105 goals in favour and 5 against. The last Barça defeat in the domestic championship came on June 1st, 2021 against Atlético de Madrid, a 4-3 loss, which gives an idea of their overwhelming dominance. No team in the history of football, men's or women's, had achieved the feat of winning 50 consecutive games, and the women's Barça has already racked up more than 60.
The other success that should also be highlighted is the massive attendance of public at the matches, which shows that women's football can be a sport of the masses like others are. No-one has broken the world record audience of 91,648 spectators in April 2022 that was established at Camp Nou when the team played Wolfsburg, nor the crowd figure of 91,553 achieved against Real Madrid, but the 72,272 spectators who arrived on a Thursday at 6:45pm for the Chelsea match is a more than respectable figure, especially considering that everyone in attendance had to buy a ticket. All the best in Eindhoven for the team managed by Jonatan Giráldez and captained by Alexia Putellas, the Ballon d'Or for the best player in the world for the last two years. They more than deserve it.