Barça Femení to play fifth consecutive Women's Champions League final

FC Barcelona's women's team will play in its fifth consecutive UEFA Women's Champions League final on May 24 in Lisbon, following its victory over Chelsea FC on Sunday at Stamford Bridge, London.

The Catalan team won 1-4 in the second leg of the competition's semifinals, following a 4-1 victory in the previous game, which brought the aggregate score to 8-2. 

Aitana Bonmatí scored the first goal of the game in minute 25, followed by teammate Ewa Pajor in minute 41 and Clàudia Pina two minutes later.

With just a couple of minutes left in the game, Salma Paralluelo, scored the fourth goal of the game.

May's will be Barça's fifth consecutive Women's Champions League final and the sixth in its history. In the first final, against Olympique Lyonnais in Budapest in 2019, Barcelona lost 4-1 to the French team.

A couple of years later, in 2021's Gothenburg final, the Catalan team won 4-0 against Chelsea in the competition's final. In 2022, in Turin, Barça lost to Olympique Lyonnais 3-1, but won 3-2 the following year when facing Wolfsburg in Eindhoven.

It was during the 2023–24 season that FC Barcelona's women's team won its first-ever final against Olympique Lyonnais in Bilbao, 2-0.

Olympique Lyonnais lost against Arsenal FC on Sunday in the other semi-final. Meaning, FC Barcelona will face Arsenal FC in the competition's final, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, on May 24.

While Barcelona has won three Champions League titles, two in a row (2023 and 2024), Lyon has won eight in total: 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022.

Arsenal has only won once, the UEFA Women's Cup in 2007, before it was rebranded as the Women's Champions League in 2010.

Best match player

Catalan footballer Aitana Bonmatí was awarded the Best Match Player trophy, which she celebrated in an interview with the Catalan public broadcaster TV3.

"We are very happy, a new final, it seems easy, but you suffer a lot during the way, and winning as we have won Chelsea is something extraordinary, this team deserves it all," Bonmatí told TV3.

She believes that the Champions League final will be a "very different game," but she is full of energy and trusts in her colleagues after having won Chelsea twice.

A similar message was shared by Caroline Graham Hansen, who defended, also in an interview post-game with TV3, that "the final will be very difficult," although they are looking forward to it.

Graham said it is "crazy" to be playing the fifth consecutive Champions League final, as "it seems easy, but it is tough and it requires a lot of training, a lot of games, a lot of trips, and being in the final is not easy," but she hopes to have a lot of support.