BARCELONA, Spain – Barcelona will face Chelsea in their Women’s Champions League semi-final after the Spanish side secured a 3-1 second-leg last-eight victory over Brann to win 5-2 on aggregate.
Aitana Bonmati led Barcelona to its sixth straight semi-finals, scoring the opening goal in a 3-1 win over Brann.
The home-and-away semi-finals will be played on April 20-21 and 27-28.
The Ballon d’Or winner put the Catalan team in the driver’s seat with a curling shot in the 24th minute before Fridolina Rolfo made it 2-0 from close range in the second half. Defender Tomine Svendheim cut the deficit 20 minutes from time before Patri Guijarro sealed Barcelona’s win with two minutes left from Bonmatí´s pass.
Defending champion Barcelona advanced 5-2 on aggregate after winning 2-1 in the quarter-final first-leg in Norway.
The hosts doubled their advantage when Fridolina Rolfo tapped home from a spilled save in the 56th minute, but Tomine Svendheim narrowed Brann’s deficit with 20 minutes remaining in the contest with an effort off the base of the post.
Chelsea reached the semi-finals following a 1-1 draw with Ajax. Chelsea advanced 4-1 on aggregate after winning the first leg 3-0 in Amsterdam.
Barcelona has now equaled Lyon’s record of consecutive semi-final appearances.
Barcelona beat Chelsea in last year’s semi-finals before going on to win the competition. “We´ve got huge impetus for this rematch with Chelsea,” Bonmatí said according to AP.
“This is the type of rivalry which inspires you when you get up to go to work. You feel things are different. This type of match is why we became footballers in the first place.”
Elsewhere, Paris Saint-Germain set an all-French semifinal against Lyon by defeating Häcken 3-0 after winning the first leg 2-1.
Tabitha Chawinga, the French league’s top scorer and leading assist maker, scored the opener at the Parc des Princes in the 27th minute.
Korbin Albert doubled PSG’s lead with a second-half long-range shot into the top corner and Marie-Antoinette Katoto completed the win with a header.
Lyon advanced to the last four for a record 13th time after a 4-1 win over Benfica. The record eight-time champion won 6-2 on aggregate after a 2-1 first leg win in Portugal.
Chelsea were one step away from a second final last season, but Barcelona were in the way, and Caroline Graham Hansen’s superb goal early in the Stamford Bridge first leg gave them an advantage they never surrendered, especially after the Norwegian attacker scored again at Camp Nou. So, as Chelsea chase a first European title in Emma Hayes’s last season at the helm, they now take on the only one of their 19 different Women’s Champions League opponents they have never defeated.
It is Barcelona’s turn to be at home first this year as they continue their bid to join Umeå, Lyon and Wolfsburg as clubs who have successfully defended the UEFA women’s club title (they have already equalled OL’s record of reaching six semi-finals in a row).
Chelsea, though, have been fearless away from home in the competition over the last couple of seasons and, while officially playing it down, seem on something of a mission to ensure Hayes’s long reign ends with the one missing trophy.
Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain meet for the fourth time in Champions League semi-finals, and when they kick off the first-leg it will be the 11th game between the two in Europe, becoming the most played match in UEFA women’s competition history.
The three previous Champions League semi-finals have all gone Lyon’s way (in each case followed by them lifting the trophy). OL have generally had the upper hand on the domestic stage too, with four wins in a row before their 1-1 league draw at OL Stadium in February, the capital side denied by a 90th-minute own goal.
