UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-finals hit new heights: great football, record crowds, worldwide buzz
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
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A historic week took the UEFA Women's Champions League to even greater heights.
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This was always going to be a ground-breaking UEFA Women's Champions League season: the introduction of the new group stage and the broadcast deal with DAZN/YouTube ensured that.
However, the quarter-finals over the last week have taken things to a whole new level. And not just on the pitch, where there was excitement aplenty as Paris Saint-Germain were pushed all the way by Bayern, Barcelona had to use all their attacking flair to defeat Real Madrid, Lyon were forced to overturn a first-leg deficit against Juventus and Wolfsburg found vintage form to see off Arsenal.
Fans flock to games
All the quarter-final attendances
Tuesday 22 March
Bayern München 1-2 Paris Saint-Germain – 12,960 (Fußball Arena München, club record)
Real Madrid 1-3 Barcelona – 3,318 (Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano)
Wednesday 23 March
Juventus 2-1 Lyon – 9,227 (Juventus Stadium)
Arsenal 1-1 Wolfsburg – 5,018 (Arsenal Stadium)
Wednesday 30 March
Barcelona 5-2 Real Madrid (agg: 8-3) – 91,553 (Camp Nou, all-time UEFA/FIFA women's competition record)
Paris Saint-Germain 2-2 Bayern München (aet, agg: 4-3) – 27,262 (Parc des Princes, club record)
Thursday 31 March
Wolfsburg 2-0 Arsenal (agg: 3-1) – 11,293 (VfL Wolfsburg Arena)
Lyon 3-1 Juventus (agg: 4-3) – 20,017 (OL Stadium)
A total of 180,648 fans attended the eight quarter-final matches, a historic figure not just for this competition but for the women's game in general. Above all, Barcelona's 5-2 win against Real Madrid made headlines far and wide thanks to an all-time UEFA and FIFA women's football attendance record of 91,553 at the Camp Nou – smashing the previous best for a UEFA women's football match by over 40,000.
Elsewhere, Paris's 2-2 draw with Bayern was watched by 27,262 spectators, the fifth largest crowd in Women's Champions League history. Bayern also set a club attendance record as the quarter-finals built on the promise of the group stage, which drew 158,939 fans across 48 games.
Overall, this season's new-look competition has already amassed an aggregate stadium audience of 375,939 – nearly 150,000 more than 2016/17, the previous record edition. And with the semi-finals to come in late April – with the Camp Nou, Parc des Princes, OL Stadium and VfL Wolfsburg Arena confirmed again as venues – plus the 21 May final at Juventus Stadium, more eye-catching figures are likely before the winning captain lifts the trophy.
UEFA women's club competition: all-time top five crowds
91,553 – Barcelona vs Real Madrid, 2022 quarter-final second leg, Camp Nou
50,212 – Lyon vs Frankfurt, 2012 final, Olympiastadion München
28,112 – Duisburg vs Zvezda-2005, 2009 final second leg, MSV Arena
27,640 – Frankfurt vs Umeå, 2008 final second leg, Frankfurt Stadion
27,262 – Paris Saint-Germain vs Bayern München, 2022 quarter-final second leg, Parc des Princes
Booming TV audiences
Every game in this season's new-look UEFA Women's Champions League from the group stage onwards is being broadcast live on streaming platform DAZN, together with YouTube, beginning a ground-breaking four-year deal.
There were more than 14 million total views of the live streams across the group stage, and just the eight quarter-final matches alone attracted close to 11.7 million views from over 210 countries and territories, taking the season's tally well past 25 million.
Social media buzz
It was a record-breaking week too for UEFA's expanding @UWCL platforms. Cross-platform reach during the quarter-finals exceeded 20 million (up 76% from last season), while the number of followers across all official platforms has now increased by 261% compared to the same stage of the competition last term.
Meanwhile, the tweet announcing the attendance record at the Camp Nou has become the most engaged post of all time on the @UWCL Twitter account.