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 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.

Wolfsburg snapped Barcelona’s 45-game winning streak, downing the Spanish club 2-0 in the second leg of the Women’s Champions League semifinal Saturday.

Barcelona will advance to the Champions League final despite the loss, defeating Wolfsburg 5-3 on aggregate after a dominant 5-1 first-leg victory.

Barcelona was held scoreless in the opening 45 minutes, with the club struggling to execute in the final third. Wolfsburg capitalized on the slow start, coming out after the break, poised to take control of the match.

Tabea Waßmuth broke the deadlock in the 47th minute, slotting home a low shot from the top of the box after confusion on a Wolfsburg set piece.

Jill Roord doubled Wolfsburg’s lead in the 59th minute, firing a long-range shot past the Barcelona keeper to put her side up 2-0.

Wolfsburg continued to push to make up their deficit on aggregate, but the 2-0 scoreline held until the final whistle.

The loss was bittersweet for Barcelona, as the match marks the first time the club has conceded more than one goal this season and the first time the team has failed to score since January 2020.

Barcelona’s win on aggregate advances the club to the Champions League final on May 21, where they will look to defend their 2021 European title.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.