Fans showed up and showed out for Barcelona, filling Camp Nou for the club’s 5-1 win against Wolfsburg in the UEFA Champions League semifinals.

Friday’s match drew a historic crowd of 91,648, breaking the world record for the most-attended women’s soccer match ever — which the team had set in its March quarterfinal against Real Madrid.

The first-leg semifinal contest against the German team sold out in just 24 hours, according to the club.

Manchester City star Lucy Bronze addressed Barcelona’s sold-out crowds in an op-ed for GiveMeSport Women, saying the Camp Nou matches “showed that women’s football is evolving.”

“There is a fan base,” she wrote. “And if things are done in the right places at the right time, these are the kinds of things that can come from it – selling out Nou Camp in the Champions League, back to back.”

The same atmosphere that led Barcelona to an emphatic and euphoric win against Real Madrid in the quarterfinal was on full display again Friday, with fans welcoming the team in droves as they entered the Camp Nou campus.

A heroes' welcome for @FCBFemeni 🙌

🇬🇧 🎙 👉 https://t.co/f55E1HYOtj
🇪🇸 🎙 👉 https://t.co/iSzTkUdJVK
🇩🇪 🎙 👉 https://t.co/mclc7LRHib pic.twitter.com/N0SLX1DuW2

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) April 22, 2022

Camp Nou’s palpable support for Barcelona lifted the team to an early, commanding lead over Wolfsburg, with Aitana Bonmatí opening up scoring in the game’s third minute.

Barcelona Femeni's first ever goal vs. Wolfsburg is scored by @AitanaBonmati 💥 pic.twitter.com/AifZnoFGrW

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) April 22, 2022

A trio of goals from Caroline Graham Hansen, Jennifer Hermoso and Alexia Putella followed to expand Barcelona’s first-half lead, electrifying the Camp Nou crowd.

OH WHAT A FINISH BY @CarolineGrahamH 😍

AGAINST HER FORMER CLUB 👀

🇬🇧 🎙 👉 https://t.co/f55E1IgpkR
🇪🇸 🎙 👉 https://t.co/iSzTkUvkNi
🇩🇪 🎙 👉 https://t.co/mclc7M9i9J pic.twitter.com/Bjsf93AOQi

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) April 22, 2022

Barcelona’s unrelenting pressure silenced Wolfsburg and sent the home team into halftime with a 4-0 lead. The German side needed to regroup at the break for any chance at redemption.

Wolfsburg, while slightly more organized in the second half, still appeared stunned following the opening 45-minute thrashing.

Denying Barcelona the shutout, Jill Roord put the visitors on the board in the 70th minute after a long VAR review.

Jill Roord is the first player to score in the #UWCL on her birthday this season 🎉

🇬🇧 🎙 👉 https://t.co/f55E1IgpkR
🇪🇸 🎙 👉 https://t.co/iSzTkUvkNi
🇩🇪 🎙 👉 https://t.co/mclc7M9i9J pic.twitter.com/O0PgeUi9o3

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) April 22, 2022

Not to be outdone, Barcelona added to its four-goal tally, with Putellas slotting in a PK from the spot in the 80th minute for her second goal of the match.

PUTELLAS PENALTY 🎯

🇬🇧 🎙 👉 https://t.co/f55E1IgpkR
🇪🇸 🎙 👉 https://t.co/iSzTkUvkNi
🇩🇪 🎙 👉 https://t.co/mclc7M9i9J pic.twitter.com/D92UP7fCre

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) April 22, 2022

Barcelona’s back-to-back record-breaking crowds at Camp Nou show March’s El Clásico was not a fluke but rather a sign of what’s to come.

Next Up: Wolfsburg and Barcelona will face off in the second leg of the Champions League semifinals on Saturday, April 30, at Volkswagen Arena in Germany.

Wisconsin volleyball is off to the attendance races, with the No. 7 college squad averaging 8,620 fans per match this season to become this NCAA's best-attended program — narrowly beating Big Ten rival No. 1 Nebraska's 8,602 current average.

Other than the Badgers and Cornhuskers, no other college volleyball team has surpassed 6,000 fans per match this year, but Wisconsin is well on track to surpass even their own dominant attendance history in the sport.

If they finish the season in the top attendance spot, the Badgers will snap a six season streak logging the second-best average crowds per year.

Even more, Wisconsin is on their way to blasting through their program-best mark, set when 7,761 fans per match filled the bleachers in 2022.

The growing demand for Badger volleyball is also translating into significant revenue boosts for school.

"We're really, really excited; we're going to exceed $2 million in volleyball ticket sales for the first time ever," Wisconsin deputy athletic director Mitchell Pinta told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this week. "And we're largely sold out for the rest of our matches at the Field House for the remainder of the season."

Should the Badgers reach that $2 million mark, they will see a massive 25% increase over the $1.6 million the team garnered just two seasons ago, and a near 18-fold growth from the $111,809 in volleyball ticket sales that Wisconsin logged in 2013.

Ultimately, the sky's the limit for both Wisconsin volleyball — and the sport at-large.

"If there's a saturation point on the demand for Wisconsin volleyball, we certainly have not seen it yet," said Pinta.

How to watch Wisconsin volleyball in action

With conference play kicking off this weekend, No. 7 Wisconsin will host unranked Big Ten foe Rutgers at 8 PM ET on Friday, before paying a visit to also-unranked Iowa at 3 PM ET on Sunday.

Both Big Ten battles will stream live on B1G+.

WSL side Liverpool opened their 2025/26 League Cup campaign with an emotional 5-0 win over WSL2 club Sunderland on Wednesday, dedicating the shutout victory to former manager Matt Beard after the 47-year-old's sudden passing last Saturday.

The match marked the Reds' return to the pitch following the postponement of their Sunday regular-season game against Aston Villa due to Beard's passing.

"It's a good win for Matt. We played with a lot of emotion," Liverpool defender Jenna Clark said afterwards, calling Wednesday "a really emotional night and an emotional few days for everyone involved with the club."

"We have pulled through together as a team the best we could and you saw that on the pitch tonight," Clark added.

Beard won back-to-back WSL titles with Liverpool in 2013 and 2014, departing the Reds in 2015 for a two-year stint with the NWSL's Boston Breakers.

He made his return to Liverpool in 2021, lifting the club back into the top-flight WSL by earning promotion his first season back at the helm.

"Matt will leave a huge void in the women's game," USWNT head coach and former Chelsea boss Emma Hayes said in a statement earlier this week. "He was one of a kind, and his loss will be felt by all. My heart goes out to his family, but I want to take the time to acknowledge what a special man he really was."​

How to watch Liverpool this weekend

Liverpool will continue their 2025/26 WSL campaign against Manchester United this Sunday, kicking off live at 7 AM ET on ESPN+.

The 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup culminates on Saturday, when host nation England battles for their first tournament title in more than a decade in a top-tier final against Canada, who are hunting their first-ever world championship trophy.

The Red Roses' long dominance on the Rugby World Cup pitch has led them to eight finals in the competition's nine editions, with England emerging victorious twice — in 1994 and 2014.

On the other hand, Canada will make just their second-ever appearance in the World Cup final this Saturday, as the Maple Leafs aim for a decidedly different outcome from their 21-9 loss to England in the 2014 championship game.

The top-ranked Red Roses will also be looking to avenge their narrow 34-31 loss to New Zealand in the tournament's most recent 2022 edition when they square off against No. 2 Canada in front of an sold-out crowd inside London's Twickenham Stadium — with another women's rugby attendance record on the line.

"You feed off of that energy, especially knowing what this game is going to be," England defense coach Sarah Hunter said. "It's a cliché, but [the crowd] almost becomes the 16th person in those moments where you need them."

How to watch the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup final

England and Canada will battle in the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup final at 11 AM ET on Saturday, with live coverage airing on Paramount+.

While the No. 1 Kansas City Current have officially run away with the 2025 NWSL Shield, the race for top playoff seeding rages on, as the No. 2 Washington Spirit fights to hold their ground against an unpredictable No. 9 Houston Dash this Sunday.

Bolstered by star Trinity Rodman's return from injury, the Spirit enter the weekend on a nine-game unbeaten streak, going up against a motivated Dash side sitting just two points outside of postseason contention.

"Every game we just need to be a lot more clinical in the final third," Rodman said after last weekend's 2-2 draw with No. 11 Angel City. "We're doing all the hard stuff and then it's [lacking] quality at the end."

Washington isn't without top-table challengers, with No. 3 Gotham FC riding their own five-game unbeaten streak into a Friday night match against the No. 4 Portland Thorns, who sit tied for points with both the Bats and the No. 5 San Diego Wave in the NWSL standings.

"At this stage, almost everyone still has a real chance to make the playoffs, which is great for the league," said Gotham manager Juan Carlos Amorós after the Bats' 1-1 draw with Bay FC last Sunday. "But it also means nothing can be taken for granted."

How to watch the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC this weekend

No. 3 Gotham FC kicks off this weekend's NWSL action when they host the No. 4 Portland Thorns at 8 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on NWSL+.

Then in Sunday's NWSL action, the No. 9 Houston Dash will visit the No. 2 Washington Spirit at 1 PM ET, airing live on Paramount+.