Barcelona Femeni put on a show worthy of the festive season for her fans around the world in their last game of the calendar year. It was a festival of goals on Thursday night when the Blaugrana played against Rosengard Women at home in their fourth group stage game of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. The game ended with a scoreline of 7-0 in favor of the defending champions, who have once again progressed to the quarterfinals of the European competition.
The encounter was a return leg of the fixture played a week ago in Malmo, Sweden, where Barcelona Femeni ran circles around the Swedish side, defeating them 6-0 in their own backyard. Tonight at the Estadi Johan Cryuff, the Catalan giants showed their dominance once again with a 7-0 demolition of the visitors in front of their home crowd.
The floodgates opened in the 15th minute when Keira Walsh latched on to a pass from Aitana Bonmati and placed the ball beyond the goalkeeper with little help from a slight deflection. The goal happened to be the English midfielder’s first Champions League goal in her career.
Relentless in attack, Barcelona got their second goal in the 34th minute courtesy of their Norwegian forward Caroline Graham Hansen, who placed a low shot into the far corner after an exquisite exchange of passes with Aitana Bonmati.
Two goals ahead in the first half seemed unfair to Barcelona considering the number of chances the team created during the first 45 minutes. However, the flurry of goals came in succession in the second half as the Blaugrana completely blew their opponents away with insane attacking football.
Salma Paralluelo scored Barcelona’s third goal in the 54th minute after making good use of her physique to win an overhead pass from Graham Hansen and send the ball beyond the sprawling Rosengard goalkeeper.
Not long after getting her first goal in the game, the young forward completed a brace in the 60th minute, carefully guiding Ona Batlle’s cross past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net to make it 4-0 for Barcelona.
At this point, a repeat of the scoreline in Malmo seemed inevitable as Barcelona kept hounding their opponents, dictating the intensity of the game while keeping possession of the ball within the opposition’s half.
Claudia Pina got in on the action in the 63rd minute, pouncing on a loose ball in the box to rifle home Barcelona’s fifth goal of the game.
Two minutes later, Lucy Bronze headed a delivery from Vicky Lopez across the face of the goal, setting up captain Marta Torrejon to unmarkedly head home into a gaping net for the sixth goal.
The Catalan giants scored one more goal to make it 7-0 in the 88th minute, courtesy of an own goal from Jessica Wik. Caroline Graham Hansen delivered a corner kick, and Martina Fernandez headed the ball toward the goal. Her effort was turned home after bouncing off the legs of the Rosengard defender.
Dramatically, Jessica Wik scored the own goal that opened the scoring for Barcelona in the first leg.
Thus, the match ended with a 7-0 victory for Barcelona Femeni, who have now secured passage to the quarterfinals of the competition. Barcelona Femeni wrapped up the year with a huge win at home, a spot in the knockout stages of the Champions League, and top position in the Liga F rankings.
