World record attendance of 91,553 for women’s football match in Barcelona

Women’s football celebrated a milestone on Wednesday when a world-record crowd of over 91,000 people watched Barcelona defeat Real Madrid 5-2 in the Champions League at the Camp Nou Stadium.

The organisers said 91,553 people were in attendance in Barcelona. The previous record for any women’s game was 90,185 for the 1999 World Cup final between the United States and China at the Rose Bowl.

It was the first time Barcelona’s women’s team played a match at the Camp Nou in front of fans. It had played at the stadium before but behind closed doors because of restrictions prompted by the Covid pandemic.

The team usually play its matches at the much smaller Johan Cruyff Stadium, which holds around 6,000 fans. The Camp Nou has a 99,000-capacity.

‘I don’t have the words to describe it,’ 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.’

At the 2012 Olympic final in London, 80,203 people saw the USA defeat Japan 2-1 to win the gold medal.

The previous club record was 60,739 in a Spanish league match between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona at Atlético’s Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in 2019. The previous women’s Champions League record was 50,212 for a game between Lyon and Frankfurt in Munich in 2012.

A stadium-wide mosaic featured the words ‘More than Empowerment’ on the grandstands of the Camp Nou.

The Catalan club advanced to the semi-finals 8-3 on aggregate after winning the first leg 3-1 in Madrid last week.

Putellas scored one of the goals for Barcelona, who will face either Arsenal or Wolfsburg in the semi-finals.

The match sold out quickly after free tickets for club members were snapped up two months in advance. The cheapest tickets for non-members were priced up to 15 euros. Barcelona has won all seven meetings with Madrid, which only recently created its women’s team.