Barcelona brush Wolfsburg aside in front of new record crowd

Barcelona 5-1 Wolfsburg
(Aitana 3', Hansen 10', Hermoso 33', Putellas 38' 85' pen – Roord 70')
Camp Nou, Barcelona

When the halftime whistle sounded in Camp Nou, barely audible over the din of a record 91,648 fans, Wolfsburg were fortunate that it was only 4-0, such was the sheer dominance with which Barcelona had torn them apart.

Whether it was Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic and Fridolina Rolföoverrunning them down the left, Jenni Hermoso strolling through the center, or Alexia Putellas conducting the orchestra from deep, the Bundesliga leaders were simply overwhelmed in the first 45 minutes of their Champions League semifinal first leg.

"Barcelona showed us up in the first half," admitted striker Tabea Wassmuth, who had barely touched the ball up front. "We didn't get into tackles and when Barcelona get into their tiki-taka rhythm, it's difficult."

Schult keeps the score down

Were it not for some profligate finishing – and a series of saves from goalkeeper Almuth Schult in the second half – the final score could easily have been higher. Despite the scoreline, the veteran goalkeeper pulled off 16 saves on a busy evening which saw her touch the ball 73 times.

Indeed, until Putellas' late penalty, Jill Roord's consolation had actually made the scoreline relatively respectable at 4-1. But that wouldn't have told the story of a comprehensive thrashing which couldn't have started any worse for Wolfsburg.

Because it wasn't even a well-worked move or piece of individual skill which opened the scoring in the third minute, but a quickly taken free-kick from deep which caught the Wolves' defense off guard, allowing Aitana to nick in.

Putellas on form

Barcelona's quality was soon on display though, as Hansen, Hermoso and Putellas quickly put the game beyond the Germans. Putellas has now scored in eight of her last nine Champions League games, and has 10 goals in total in this season's competition.

The game may have taken a different course had Svenja Huth been able to capitalize on Barcelona's ball-watching with the score at 2-0, but she saw her first effort cleared off the line and the follow-up saved by the goalkeeper.

"We want to show what we can do, we're not going to hide, we want to make it really uncomfortable," Wolfsburg head coach Tommy Stroot had said pre-match.

He saw none of that from his players, whose treble dreams are now as good as over.