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Record-breaking crowd on 'magical' night for women's football

Players celebrate at Nou CampImage source, Uefa

Barcelona Women's got through to the semi-finals of the Champions league last night. But what made the evening so historic?

Not only did they play in front of supporters at the Nou Camp stadium for the first time ever, they did so in front of a record-breaking crowd - 91,553 fans were in the stadium to watch the match!

Barcelona thrashed rivals Real Madrid 5-2, meaning they're headed to the first leg of their semi-final fixture on 23 April.

Captain and Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas, who scored on the night, described the evening as "magical".

"When the match finished the fans simply didn't want to go home, there was such a connection between them and us while we celebrated," she said.

"I saw a lot of girls, children with that spark in their eyes. It's amazing to be part of history."

Image source, Anadolu Agency
Image caption,

Barcelona set a new women's record attendance of 91,553 fans at the Nou Camp

Fellow goal-scorer Aitana Bonmati said: "We've recently been through some wonderful experiences, especially winning the Champions League. But maybe this was more special.

"A full Nou Camp and making history - immense."

And it wasn't just the players on the field who thought it was an incredible. Players around the world took to social media to express how excited they were to see the huge crowd.

Everton player Toni Duggan, who used to play for Barcelona, tweeted: "91.553! JUST WOW!!", while Manchester United goalkeeper Mary Earps said it was "insane".

Image source, Uefa
Image caption,

Fans spelled out the phrase "more than empowerment" using flags in the stands

Everyone was excited to see if the match would beat the record for fans at a women's club game, which was 60,739, but they went much further.

Beating the 23-year record of 90,195 from the 1999 World Cup in the United States, it became the largest crowd to ever watch a women's football match.

A record was set in Paris last night too - Paris Saint-Germain had 27,262 fans in the stadium watching their 2-2 draw against Bayern Munich, their largest crowd at home.