Barcelona soar to a 4-0 win against Chelsea to win the UEFA Women's Champions League for the first time
Four goals in the first half guided Barcelona to an emphatic win over their English rivals, Chelsea, with a dominant display from Dutch Olympic hopeful Lieke Martens.
Football
Barcelona beat Chelsea 4-0 to win the UEFA Women's Champions League for the first time on a dramatic day in women's football.
On a scale of 1-10, Chelsea coach Emma Hayes said her stress levels were a level one moments before kick off in Gothenburg, Sweden.
It took just 33 seconds to put that pulse rate to the test. A defensive mix up led to Melanie Leupolz scoring an own goal to kick-start a frantic start to a huge final.
The two juggernaut teams had never met each other in the UEFA Women’s Champions League with both sides going into the game champions of their respective domestic leagues.
Chelsea rebounded initially and created some decent forward play courtesy of Fran Kirby and Sam Kerr.
After 11 minutes, Leupolz brought down Jennifer Hermoso in the Chelsea penalty area with German referee Riem Hussein immediately pointing to the spot.
Alexia Putellas of Barcelona made it 2-0 and left Chelsea with a considerable task.
UEFA Women's Champions League: Dominant display by Barcelona
The third came after 20 minutes through some neat passing. Aitana Bonmati applying the final touch. Coach Hayes’ stress level presumably a little higher than just before kick-off.
Chelsea hadn’t been 3-0 down to anyone since they lost 5-0 to Arsenal in October 2018 in the WSL.
Barcelona didn’t relent. This time Lieke Martens drilled a low ball across for Caroline Graham Hansen to finish.
Martens had hit the bar in the run up to the first goal and generally caused havoc down the left wing all game. She plays for the Netherlands internationally and is one of the players to watch ahead of the Olympic tournament in Tokyo.
Barca wrapped up the Spanish league title with eight games to go and it seemed like the Champions League title was finally making its way to Camp Nou for the first time before the half-time whistle had even been blown.
The second half was comparatively quiet with Chelsea able to keep Barcelona at bay but unable to alter the score-line.
An impressive performance for the first ever team from Spain to win the UEFA Women's Champions League.