The night Barcelona crowned Alexia Putellas their queen at the new Camp Nou
When she saw the ball hit the back of the net, Alexia Putellas ran toward the corner flag with her arms outstretched in celebration. She looked up at the sweeping stands, and more than 60,000 people returned her gaze. Then came her traditional bow to the fans, who responded as they always do: “ Nomes hi ha una reina — Alexia Putellas .
” There is only one queen — Alexia Putellas. Less than eight minutes had been played of the second leg of Barcelona’s Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid and, already, the tie felt settled. The Catalans had won the first game 6-2, with their place in the last four all but secured.
And yet, this was a special goal for Putellas and her team. It was Barca Femeni’s first at the new Camp Nou. How different this all was to the first time Putellas had graced this arena.
A match was played in the stadium in 1970, but the club’s women’s section had yet to be formally established back then. It was only in January 2021 that the club opened the Camp Nou for the women’s side for the first time since their professionalisation — for a league game against city neighbours Espanyol. Putellas scored Barca’s first goal that day, a 45th-minute header.
But there was no one to cheer them from the stands, with the game played behind closed doors due to Covid-19 restrictions. Fast forward five years, and the scene could not have been more different. News filtered through around an hour before kick off that, with the top tiers yet to be opened in the revamped arena, the game was a 60,067 sell out.
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