On Friday, Barcelona Women and Wolfsburg Women will face off in the first leg of their Women's Champions League semi-final contest.
The hosts ousted their rivals Real Madrid in the previous round, while Wolfsburg eliminated Arsenal to book their place in the final four.
Match preview
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Barcelona are just three games away from retaining their European crown, and although they may be favourites for the Champions League title, they will be fully aware of the threat posed by an in-form Wolfsburg side.
After finishing top of their group, Barcelona brushed aside Real Madrid in the quarter-final thanks to an 8-3 aggregate victory, which included a 5-2 win in the second leg in a contest that was played in front of the biggest official crowd in women's football history.
Since that second-leg victory, the European champions have thrashed Villarreal 6-1 before they maintained their 100% record in all competitions with a 2-0 win away to Valencia on Saturday.
Having swept past all challengers this season, Barcelona can make it 40 wins from 40 games in the season if they can emerge victorious from the first leg on Friday.
Jonathan Giraldez's side will be looking to make home advantage count, and their home form suggests that they have every chance of doing just that, with all of their 17 competitive home games this season yielding at least four Barcelona goals.
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Wolfsburg also enter Friday's first leg in imperious form as they bid to extend their unbeaten run to 18 matches in all competitions, while they are also searching for a fifth consecutive victory.
Like their hosts, Die Wolfinnen are also dreaming of winning a treble, with Wolfsburg currently top of the Frauen-Bundesliga, and they are also in the DFB-Pokal final after beating Bayern Munich at the weekend.
Sunday's semi-final against Bayern represented the second victory against their rivals in as many games as they followed a comprehensive 6-0 win with a 3-1 victory in the final four of the domestic cup competition.
A Jill Roord brace and a late Tabea Wassmuth strike sealed the cup victory, ensuring that Wolfsburg carry momentum in Friday's contest, with the visitors looking to spring a surprise at Camp Nou.
If Tommy Stroot's side are looking for inspiration ahead of the first leg, they may find it in their previous three meetings with Barcelona, which have all been won by Wolfsburg with the most recent of those being a 1-0 win in the 2019/20 edition of the Champions League.
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Team News
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Mariona Caldentey and Asisat Oshoala returned to training this week after their injury layoffs, and they could be involved in some capacity in the first leg, although a place in the starting lineup is unlikely for either player as Barcelona look to ease them back into the fold.
There could be a place in the starting lineup for Claudia Pina, who has also returned to training following an injury issue that kept her out of Saturday's game against Valencia.
Caroline Graham Hansen also missed the weekend encounter after testing positive for COVID-19, but Barcelona are hopeful that the Norway international will recover in time for Friday's contest.
As for the visitors, they were dealt a blow at the weekend when Lena Oberdorf picked up a knee injury that will rule the midfielder out of the first leg in Barcelona
Wolfsburg did receive a boost at the end of March after Ewa Pajor returned from a long injury layoff in the second leg of their Champions League quarter final tie with Arsenal, and the Poland international is expected to be among the substitutes on Friday.
Wassmuth is the current topscorer in the Champion League - Barcelona's Alexia Putellas is in second place - and the 25-year-old will be aiming to add to the nine goals that she has scored in Europe this season when she leads the line for Wolfsburg against the European champions.
Barcelona Women possible starting lineup:
Panos; Torrejon, Paredes, Leon, Ouahabi; Bonmati, Putellas, Guijarro; Hansen, Rolfo, Pina
Wolfsburg Women possible starting lineup:
Schutt; Wilms, Hendrich, Janssen, Rauch; Popp, Lattwein; Huth, Roord, Jonsdottir; Wassmuth
We say: Barcelona Women 3-1 Wolfsburg Women
Although we expect Wolfsburg to present their hosts with a stiff test, Barcelona have demonstrated over the last couple of seasons that they are a step ahead of the competition, and we think that they will emerge victorious once again on Friday.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Barcelona Women win with a probability of 53.17%. A draw had a probability of 24.2% and a win for Wolfsburg Women had a probability of 22.65%.
The most likely scoreline for a Barcelona Women win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.39%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.68%) and 2-0 (9.59%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.5%), while for a Wolfsburg Women win it was 0-1 (6.83%). The actual scoreline of 5-1 was predicted with a 0.8% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Barcelona Women would win this match.
