For the first time ever, Barcelona Femeni is set to host a match at the Camp Nou with fans in attendance, and what an event it'll be: the return leg of the club's UEFA Women's Champions League quarterfinal against Real Madrid on Wednesday, March 30.
If recent results are any indictor, it'll be a party atmosphere inside the ground following the first leg in Madrid on March 22.
Barça beat Real 3-1 at Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano in league play back on Dec. 12 and 4-0 there last season. Barcelona currently leads the Primera División and holds a 22-point advantage over sixth-place Real. Regardless, you never really know how things will play out in El Clásico.
The match will serve as the first women's game with fans inside the Camp Nou since Christmas Day, 1970, when almost 60,000 showed up for an exhibition match that was organized by an 18-year-old Catalan amateur player, Immaculada Cabecerán, to raise funds for local children's hospitals.
Barcelona Femeni did play at the Camp Nou for the first time last year against city rival Espanyol, but no fans were allowed in because of Covid-19 restrictions.
The capacity of the Camp Nou is 99,354, and the "idea is to encourage maximum public attendance" so long as Covid-19 allows it. The team's usual home ground is Estadi Johan Cruyff at the club's training facility, which has a capacity of 6,000.
The victor advances to play the winner of Arsenal vs. Wolfsburg in the Women's Champions League semifinals.
