How many Women’s Champions League finals have Barça reached?

Giants of the European game: after knocking out Chelsea, Barcelona have reached their fourth Women’s Champions League final in just five seasons.

It’s an achievement that further underlines their status as one of the continent’s dominant forces, and is a ringing endorsement of the club’s firm commitment to its women’s soccer project. In the final in Eindhoven on 3 June, Barça will bid to lift their second European title.

Barça recover from Putellas setback to return to final

This season’s Champions League represented a major challenge for Jonatan Giráldez’s side, who went into the campaign fresh from the crushing blow of losing two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas to a torn anterior cruciate ligament. After the immense let-down of last term’s defeat to Lyon in the final, Barça set themselves the target of banishing the memories of Turin this year.

After topping Group D with 15 points from 18 - having scored 29 and conceded just six - Barça advanced to the quarter-finals, where they eliminated Roma with a comprehensive, 6-1 aggregate victory.

Brimming with confidence, and with the Spanish league title all but secured, the Catalans moved on to a semi-final tie with Chelsea - and didn’t disappoint. Caroline Graham Hansen’s goal gave them a 1-0 win in the first leg at Stamford Bridge last weekend, before they completed the job with a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou on Thursday.

English or German opposition in Eindhoven

Now, Barça wait to find out the identity of their opponents in the final. It’ll be one of Arsenal or Wolfsburg, who meet in the second leg of their last-four clash on Monday.

It was the Germans who were the last club that managed to deprive the seven-time Spanish title winners of a place in the Champions League final: in late August 2020, following the tournament’s covid-enforced suspension, a goal by Fridolina Rolfö - who is now a Barça player - dumped the Culés out of Europe’s top club competition.

2020 aside, every final since 2019 has featured Barcelona. The Blaugrana made their debut in the showpiece event four years ago, losing 4-1 to Lyon in Budapest, before lifting their first European crown in 2021, thanks to a 4-0 thumping of Chelsea in Gothenburg. A 3-1 defeat to Lyon followed 12 months later.

The last five Women’s Champions League finals: