The UEFA Women’s Champions League on June 3 will pit two of the game’s brightest stars against one another in Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas and Wolfsburg’s Alexandra Popp.

Both made returns for their respective clubs in the last few days. Popp had missed several matches with an Achilles injury but came back to score for Wolfsburg in her team’s 3-2 win against Arsenal in Monday’s Champions League semifinal.

Putellas made her first appearance since tearing her ACL last July in Barca’s 3-0 win over Sporting Huelva, which clinched their fourth straight Liga F title. Her team already had clinched its spot in the Champions League final.

So what can fans expect from the title matchup?

When did these teams last play one another?

Barcelona and Wolfsburg last faced each other during the 2021-22 Champions League semifinals. Putellas and Barcelona won 5-3 on aggregate but lost to Olympique Lyonnais in the final.

Wolfsburg have made six Champions League final appearances, with their most recent coming in 2020. Only Lyon have made more appearances in the final, which makes this familiar territory for the German club. But Wolfsburg haven’t won the Champions League since 2014.

Barcelona, meanwhile, won the UWCL just two seasons ago, beating out English club Chelsea for the title in 2021.

Who are the players to watch for each side?

While Popp and Putellas will be in sharper form by the June final, several other players also should feature heavily in this matchup.

Asisat Oshoala has been dominant for Barcelona this season, leading the team with 20 goals through 24 matches – a suitable follow-up to last season, when she led the team with 20 goals through 19 matches.

Midfielder Aitana Bonmati has helped to fill the hole left by Putellas, providing goal-scoring, playmaking and leadership inside the middle third. She’s leading the Champions League in assists, with seven through UWCL competition.

Popp has led Wolfsburg in scoring, with 14 goals through 17 matches despite missing several weeks due to injury. She’s followed by Ewa Pajor, who has 11 goals in 16 matches as well as seven assists. She ties Popp for a team-high 18 points.

Pajor has been the top scorer in Champions League competition, notching eight goals so far.

Arsenal’s Champions League run ended in injury and heartbreak in Monday’s 3-2 semifinal loss to Wolfsburg.

The Gunners, who already have lost three players to ACL tears this season, saw defender Laura Wienroither stretchered off late in the second half with an apparent knee injury. And despite the raucous crowd of 60,063 at Emirates Stadium, a record for a Champions League match in England, they conceded the winning goal in the 119th minute of extra time.

Wolfsburg clinched the match and the 5-4 aggregate win on a cross off the foot of Pauline Bremer. The club also received a boost from the return of Alexandra Popp, who missed the first leg of the semifinal with a calf injury but scored off a header in the second leg.

Injury luck, though, has not been on Arsenal’s side this season. Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema and Leah Williamson all have suffered ACL tears this season. Team captain Kim Little sustained a season-ending hamstring injury in the Champions League quarterfinal, and Caitlin Foord injured her hamstring earlier in April.

Wienroither added her own name to the growing injury list Monday. She entered the match in the 64th minute and exited 18 minutes later on a stretcher.

The loss ends Arsenal’s bid for the Champions League trophy, but the club remains in the running for the Women’s Super League title. With 38 points, the Gunners sit nine points back of first-place Manchester United with five matches left to play.

Arsenal have made history once again, selling out Emirates Stadium for the first time in their history.

Monday’s Champions League semifinal will not be the first time the women’s team has played at Emirates this season, with the club having made a vow to play at least six matches at the venue this season. But it is the first time Arsenal have sold all of the 60,704 available tickets.

And fans are in for an exciting match, with the club playing the second leg of its Champions League semifinal against VfL Wolfsburg. The two teams are tied 2-2 after the first leg.

“‘Exciting’ doesn’t do it justice,” Arsenal and England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy said when asked about the sellout. “A lot of hard work has gone into this. When you look at the future sustainability in the game for Arsenal Women as a club that’s what’s most exciting for me. I hope every Gooner there will be screaming their hearts out.”

Of course, they’ve sold many seats in the stadium before, having attracted a Women’s Super League record crowd of 47,367 for the north London derby in September when they played Tottenham Hotspur.

Arsenal have bought into marketing the women’s games, with the marketing team remaining as one rather than having a separate team for the women’s side. That has helped bolster a trend of increasing attendance in the WSL in the wake of England’s Euros win.

It’s a step in the right direction for the club. Chief executive Vinai Venkatesham has said that he hopes to see the women’s team play all their matches at Emirates down the road. And with the club now selling out the stadium, that seems more and more likely.

“I don’t see this as an end-point for it. For me this has always been the natural progression that we were going to get here [selling out], whether it was this game or not,” manager Jonas Eidevall said. “I hope when we look back on the day tomorrow, in history, that we can see that was a starting point — to make this a regular occurrence.”

Arsenal were delayed returning from their Champions League semifinal Sunday after their plane burst into flames on the runway at the Braunschweig Wolfsburg Airport in Germany.

Following a 2-2 semifinal draw against Wolfsburg, the Arsenal women’s team was traveling home to England when a bird reportedly flew into the left engine of the team plane during takeoff, causing the fire. The takeoff was halted and the players and support staff were evacuated, the Telegraph reported Monday.

“Our aircraft developed a technical issue prior to take-off in Germany on Sunday evening,” Arsenal said in a statement. “As a result, we remained in Wolfsburg overnight on Sunday before flying back to England on Monday afternoon. We would like to thank the staff onboard the aircraft and on the ground at the airport for their assistance.”

No one was injured in the incident. The team spent the night in a local hotel and flew back to London on Monday.

The second leg of the Champions League semifinal will be played Monday at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. A crowd of nearly 50,000 is expected for the match.

Two days after Leah Williamson was ruled out of the 2023 Women’s World Cup with an ACL tear, England dealt with another injury scare on Saturday when Lucy Bronze went down in the 65th minute of Barcelona’s Champions League semifinal versus Chelsea.

Bronze clutched her knee and then hopped off the field, a concerning sight. But she returned to the pitch at the conclusion of the game, which Barcelona won 1-0, to shake hands with Chelsea players.

In his post-match comments, Barcelona manager Jonatan Giraldez said Bronze was “feeling much better.”

“Initially Lucy was a bit worried about her injury, she felt her pain in her knee, but now she’s feeling much better about it,” Giraldez said, per SkySports.

“She felt pain in the knee but I think she’s fine right now. I was talking to her immediately after the game. It was scary at first but right now I think she’s fine.”

Bronze, 31, has a long history of knee injuries and subsequent surgeries, resulting in lingering pain.

“I’ve just got to play through it,” Bronze said last year. “There are plenty of players who are having to play through pain in their career and I’m now one of them.”

England has seen multiple players go down with injury in the last year, dampening the squad’s World Cup prospects. Beth Mead’s World Cup chances are doubtful after the 27-year-old ruptured her ACL in November, while Millie Bright’s status is also up-in-the-air.

The UEFA Women’s Champions League final saw a 56 percent increase in viewership over last season’s final.

Across DAZN, DAZN’s UWCL YouTube channel and 11 broadcast channels in Europe, the showdown between Lyon and Barcelona accumulated 3.6 million viewers.

The season, including 61 matches as well as other match content, generated more than 64 million views across more than 230 countries and territories, according to DAZN. In the last three months of the season alone, more than 12.3 million viewers visited DAZN’s UWCL YouTube channel for the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

Of viewers worldwide, 55 percent are aged 18 through 34.

“This first season as the global broadcaster of the UWCL has been a tremendous success and reflects DAZN’s commitment to close the coverage gap between women’s and men’s sports,” DAZN CEO Shay Segev said in a statement. “We are invigorated about Year Two and look forward to engaging even more audiences as we further contribute towards building popularity in women’s football.”

Viewership wasn’t the only record-breaking part of the Champions League knockout stages. During the quarterfinals and semifinals, Barcelona set back-to-back world records for attendance at a women’s soccer match.

Lyon midfielder Catarina Macario is clapping back at the Women’s Champions League for its Team of the Season selections after she was snubbed by UEFA’s Technical Observer panel.

The all-star team includes six players from Olympique Lyonnais, including goalkeeper Christiane Endler, who helped propel Lyon to the Champion’s League title in a 3-1 win over Barcelona.

Among midfielders, only Amandine Henry was selected from Lyon. Three Barcelona players were selected in the midfield, headlined by Alexia Putellas, who led the Champions League in scoring with 11 goals through 10 games.

Marie-Antoinette Katoto of Paris Saint-Germain was the lone player selected to the Team of the Season who was not a part of the either Barcelona or Lyon.

Macario reacted to her absence from the team despite her performance throughout the season, which included eight goals – including one in the final – and two assists. Her eight goals through 11 games were good for third in the WCL and led Lyon.

“Thanks for having me guys,” she wrote. “I’ll try again next year.”

Notably, Tabea Waßmuth of Wolfsburg, who finished second in Champions League scoring with 10 goals through 10 games and helped her team to a semifinal appearance, also was left off the Team of the Season.

It’s hard to believe only seven months before claiming the Champions League title, Ada Hegerberg was making her triumphant return to Lyon after being sidelined for 21 months.

The Norway striker has come a long way since her ACL injury abruptly halted her career in 2020, just two years after winning the Ballon d’Or award.

On Saturday, things turned around for Hegerberg as she scored a goal to help Lyon to a 3-1 win over Barcelona in the Champions League final, a feat that surprised Hegerberg herself.

“I couldn’t imagine winning the Champions League one year ago,” Hegerberg said after the historic win. “I’ve come far from a long injury, and getting back to this level is just extremely inspiring and I am very grateful.”

The 27-year-old’s goal added to her Champions League tally, notching 59 in 61 UWCL appearances to make her the competition’s all-time top scorer.

“It was about finding the right space,” Hegerberg said of her headed finish to double Lyon’s lead in the championship. “When you get a chance on goal, it should be goal.”

Hegerberg has scored in four of the five UWCL finals she’s competed in for Lyon, the first player to do since Alfredo di Stefano.

“I have difficulties finding the words to describe this,” she said. “We faced a beautiful team, and we really went for this victory, and we let the football talk which is important for us.”

Lyon’s trophy marks the club’s record eighth Champions League championship, restoring the club’s reign atop women’s soccer.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this group of players,” Hegerberg said. “It takes a lot of courage, a lot of work, mentality to get to this place. It wasn’t easy to go for it, but it’s the eighth title of the club, which is amazing.”

Lyon did what seemingly no team could this season, dominating Barcelona 3-1 to clinch the Champions League trophy Saturday.

The French side put Barcelona under pressure early, as Amandine Henry put Lyon up 1-0 in the game’s sixth minute. The French national team midfielder launched a stunning curler from far outside the box.

Lyon doubled its lead in the 23rd minute as Ada Hegerberg headed a lofted cross past the Barcelona keeper, deflating the Spanish side.

The situation went from bad to worse for Barcelona in the 33rd minute when Catarina Macario finished off a Lyon effort spurred by sloppy defending from Barcelona. The finish from the USWNT star put her team up 3-0.

Barcelona showed a glimmer of hope for a comeback late in the first half, when Alexia Putellas knocked in a cross to keep her side in the game.

But the 3-1 scoreline held through the second half despite Barcelona’s best efforts, and Lyon celebrated as the final whistle blew.

“This is what I’ve dreamed of ever since I was a little girl,” an emotional Lindsey Horan said after the match.

Saturday’s win marks Lyon’s record eighth Champions League title.

Catarina Macario will play in the most significant club match of her career Saturday when Lyon takes on Barcelona in the Champions League final.

In the UWSNT striker’s first full season with the French club, Macario led Lyon in Division 1 Féminine goals, notching 13 across 18 matches. The 22-year-old leads Lyon in Champions League scoring as well, with seven goals and two assists in 10 games so far.

Of her seven goals, two came in Lyon’s quarterfinal contest against Juventus. The young star notched another brace in the club’s first-leg semifinal matchup against French rival Paris Saint-Germain.

Tucking in behind Lyon forward Ada Hegerberg, Macario’s midfield positioning makes her challenging to stop, with the American star able to make darting runs and take defenders one-on-one.

Her skill level in particular is what sets Macario apart, with her ability to execute world-class finishes for club and country.

Macario isn’t just lighting it up for Lyon. She has brought the same offensive firepower stateside, anchoring the attack for the U.S. women’s national team.

In February, Macario earned MVP honors at the She Believes Cup after burying two unforgettable goals and recording one assist in three matches for the USWNT.

On Saturday, Macario has a chance to add a Champions League trophy to her banner season when Lyon faces off against Barcelona. The matchup will be a tough one for Macario and Lyon, as the Spanish side is coming off a perfect 30-win season in the Primera Division.

The Champions League final will kick off at 1 p.m. ET Saturday on DAZN’s YouTube channel.