The Barcelona-Real Madrid second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals became much more than a football match on Wednesday.
The azulgrana won 5-2 (8-3 on aggregate) to reach the semi-finals, the fourth in a row for them in the European Cup, and the party was total in what is already the women's game with the most spectators in the entire history of football: 91,553 spectators packed the Camp Nou, surpassing the record of 90,915 people who watched the 1999 World Cup final between the United States and China live at the Rose Bowl stadium in Los Angeles.
Gone is also the men's game with the most influx this year at the Camp Nou, precisely the classic between Barcelona and Madrid, which brought together 86,422 fans.
The record of the women's club duel with the most public so far was widely surpassed,
the Atlético-Barcelona de Liga in March 2019, which added 60,739 followers in the Wanda Metropolitano.
And the classic also kept the record in a women's Champions League event, which belonged to the 2012 final between Olympique de Lyon and Frankfurt (50,212).
Barça-Madrid did not want to own Spain or Europe, they wanted the best record in the world and erased any international record.
More than empowerment
, more than empowerment, was deployed several times in a giant mosaic.
The schedule of the European meeting (18.45) and the traffic (the teachers' and transport strike complicated, even more than usual, the movement in the Catalan capital) did not help to populate the Camp Nou from the outset.
In fact, according to the calculations at the club, when the classic began there were around 50,000 people in the stands of the stadium, while in the surroundings of the Camp Nou the Barça fans were packed ready to see a historic event for the women's team: the first European classic.
The life of Madrid in the Champions League, in any case, contrasts with that of Barcelona.
The white girls are rookies in the Champions League, while the Barça defenders of the title reached the fifth semi-final in their history, the fourth in a row.
The match at the Alfredo Di Stéfano had worked as an alarm clock for Barça (1-3).
Alberto Toril's team was tough and combative, difficult to break for the azulgrana, nothing to do with the placid 5-0 they had achieved in the last classic in the League.
The script, however, did not change too much at the Camp Nou.
And that this time the one that surprised the start was Barcelona.
A center by Mapi León that poisoned Misa and slipped into the Madrid goal seemed to water the Barça team with peace of mind.
It was an illusion.
Toril players are not dressed in white for no reason.
That is to say, they dignified the classic to the point of making the European champion doubt.
Not an easy mission, especially against a team that has not known defeat in the season: 36 games and 36 wins.
After Carmona's penalty equalizer, Madrid did not shrink, on the contrary.
And Claudia Zornoza, one of the most talented soccer players in Valdebebas, invented an anthological goal: she took a whiplash past the central circle that surprised Paños.
The Camp Nou didn't even flinch.
Not even the runrún appeared that puts more fear in their own than in others, and Barça turned on the football machine.
The noise, then, was in the stands and on the grass.
And it seemed that no one wanted to be left out of the Barça party after Aitana made it 2-2.
Claudia Pina appeared, then Alexia Putellas and a player, as sober as she was brilliant, like Graham Hansen to close Barcelona's win.
A match that will reopen the history books for Barcelona, but also those of Spanish, European and world football: a record classic in the Champions League that was more than a match.
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