Barcelona beats Wolfsburg 4-1 in Women's Champions League quarterfinals

WOLFSBURG, Germany (AP) — Barcelona took a big step toward a third straight Women's Champions League title by beating Wolfsburg 4-1 in the first leg of their quarterfinal encounter Wednesday.

In the first meeting of the two teams since Barcelona beat Wolfsburg 3-2 in the 2023 Champions League final, Barcelona showed how the gap between the two teams has only grown.

Barcelona dominated throughout and largely shut Wolfsburg's forwards out of the game as former Wolfsburg player Ewa Pajor caused her old team plenty of problems.

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Barcelona took the lead when Pajor, who joined Barcelona from Wolfsburg last year, pressured defender Caitlin Dijkstra into conceding an own goal as she tried to stop Pajor connecting with Aitana Bonmati's cross in the 26th minute.

Two goals in the space of three minutes early in the second half took the game further away from Wolfsburg as Irene Paredes scored to finish off a short corner routine before Salma Paralluelo made it 3-0 soon after with a deflected shot.

Wolfsburg had some hope of a comeback when Janina Minge scored a header from a corner in the 79th, but Barcelona's 18-year-old substitute Sydney Schertenleib responded with a curled shot that went in off the crossbar.

Manchester City hosts Chelsea in the quarterfinals later Wednesday.

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