Barcelona takes a commanding 4-1 lead over Chelsea in Women's Champions League semifinals series

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona recovered from a missed penalty by Alexia Putellas to take a commanding 4-1 lead over Chelsea in the Women’s Champions League semifinals on Sunday.

Putellas had her penalty kick saved by Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton in the 12th minute but the Catalan club rallied with a pair of goals by substitute Claudia Pina and one each from Ewa Pajor and Irene Paredes.

Sandy Baltimore scored for Chelsea.

“No winning scoreline is enough,” Barcelona coach Pere Romeu said. “There’s huge evidence in soccer that you can’t ever rely on a first-leg lead. We are going to have a beautiful battle over there at Stamford Bridge.”

Chelsea will host the return semifinal leg next Sunday and the winner on aggregate will advance to the final in Lisbon next month.

It was the eighth straight win for defending champion Barcelona in the European women's competition. It has scored 40 goals across those eight consecutive wins since losing 2-0 to Manchester City.

Barcelona and Chelsea are meeting in the last four for the third consecutive season. Barcelona has advanced each time.

“I still believe in my team and my players, 100%,” Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor said. "It’ll be difficult, but the main goal is to score early in the return leg. In football everything is possible, so let’s try to win the game and, if we score early, maybe we can put Barcelona under pressure.”

Pajor opened the scoring in the 35th and Pina added to the lead in the 70th, not long after entering the match.

Baltimore pulled the visitors closer four minutes later, but Paredes gave Barcelona a two-goal lead again in the 82nd.

Pina added a fourth in the 90th at the Johan Cruyff stadium.

“When I’m on the bench, we’ve already spent a whole week analyzing a rival like Chelsea," Pina said. "You have lots of ideas in your head. When the game goes on, you progress those ideas and look at where your teammates are already creating gaps in the opponents’ defense.”

In the other semifinal series, Lyon weathered a second-half rally by Arsenal to claim a 2-1 away win on Saturday, putting the record eight-time champions on course for another Women's Champions League title match.

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Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton holds the ball during the women's Champions League semifinals, first leg, soccer match between FC Barcelona and Chelsea FC at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Sant Joan Despi, outside Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Bagu Blanco)

Barcelona's Ingrid Syrstad Engen vies for the ball with Chelsea's Mayra Ramirez, left, during the women's Champions League semifinals, first leg, soccer match between FC Barcelona and Chelsea FC at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Sant Joan Despi, outside Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Bagu Blanco)

Barcelona's Claudia Pina celebrates after scoring her side's fourth goal during the women's Champions League semifinals, first leg, soccer match between FC Barcelona and Chelsea FC at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Sant Joan Despi, outside Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Bagu Blanco)

Barcelona's Claudia Pina celebrates on the shoulders of Alexia Putellas, left, after scoring her side's fourth goal during the women's Champions League semifinals, first leg, soccer match between FC Barcelona and Chelsea FC at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Sant Joan Despi, outside Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Bagu Blanco)

Barcelona's Irene Paredes, center, celebrates after scoring her side's third goal during the women's Champions League semifinals, first leg, soccer match between FC Barcelona and Chelsea FC at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Sant Joan Despi, outside Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Bagu Blanco)

Chelsea's Lucy Bronze falls to the ground next to Barcelona's Ewa Pajor during the women's Champions League semifinals, first leg, soccer match between FC Barcelona and Chelsea FC at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Sant Joan Despi, outside Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Bagu Blanco)

Barcelona's Irene Paredes runs after the ball during the women's Champions League semifinals, first leg, soccer match between FC Barcelona and Chelsea FC at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Sant Joan Despi, outside Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Bagu Blanco)

Barcelona's Fridolina Rolfo and Patri Guijarro, right, celebrate after defeating Chelsea 4-1 in their women's Champions League semifinals, first leg, soccer match at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Sant Joan Despi, outside Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Bagu Blanco)

Barcelona's Alexia Putellas, 2nd right, celebrates with teammates Ingrid Syrstad Engen and Patri Guijarro, right, after defeating Chelsea 4-1 in their women's Champions League semifinals, first leg, soccer match at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Sant Joan Despi, outside Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Bagu Blanco)

Barcelona's Ingrid Syrstad Engen, Claudia Pina, Ewa Pajor and Patri Guijarro, from left, celebrate after defeating Chelsea 4-1 in their women's Champions League semifinals, first leg, soccer match at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Sant Joan Despi, outside Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Bagu Blanco)

The National Transportation Safety Board on Sunday said it is gathering information about the evacuation of a Frontier Airlines plane after it hit and killed a person on the runway at Denver International Airport during takeoff.

The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday,” according to a post on the airport’s official X account.

Passengers were evacuated via slides, and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. An airport spokesperson said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to hospitals.

Some people on board expressed concern about the evacuation, including being stuck in the plane for several minutes as smoke filled the cabin and left on the tarmac in the cold once they were out. Video also showed some passengers coming down the slide with what looked to be their carry-on bags.

“We are gathering information about the emergency evacuation to determine if it meets criteria for a safety investigation,” NTSB spokesperson Sarah Taylor Sulick said early Sunday, adding that the agency might have more details in a few hours.

Frontier Airlines didn’t respond early Sunday to a request for information about the evacuation.

A spokesman for the Denver Police Departmet said Sunday the investigation into the incident was ongoing and that the identification of the person on the runway will be confirmed and released by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner.

The person was hit two minutes after jumping the fence and crossing the runway. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.

“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”

The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”

The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now” before the pilot tells the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”

Frontier Airlines said in a statement that flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the collision.

The airline said the plane was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members.

“We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities,” the airline said.

Passengers said panic took hold on the flight after an engine caught fire and the cabin began filling with smoke.

“Honestly, I thought I was going to die,” passenger Mohamed Hassan told Colorado’s 9NEWS.

“A lot of people next to me were screaming and crying. I just closed my eyes,” he said. "At that time, you’re not really thinking of anything, you know? Because we were just about to take off and I heard that boom, so I wasn’t sure what happened. I just thought something really, really bad happened.”

Passenger Nikil Thalanki told local media outlets that he felt “this jerk” as the plane was about to take off, adding that it felt like the wheels had left the ground but then came back down.

“There was fire on the engine. There was lots of sparks that are happening. Immediately came to a stop,” Thalanki said. "As soon as we saw the sparks on the flight, smoke filled the cabin completely. It was super hard to breathe.”

Kimberly Randle said passengers were panicking and desperate to get off the aircraft.

“In a few minutes, they finally opened the door. People were running to get out of the plane," he said. "It was chaos everywhere.”

The NTSB has for years expressed concerned about evacuations, especially passengers leaving with their carry-ons. In an April report on the evacuation aboard a United Airlines flight at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, the NTSB described a troubling scene.

Passengers were evacuated via slides and stairs last year from the jetliner after an engine problem during takeoff caused smoke and fire on the right wing.

Despite the flight attendant telling passengers to remain seated, several began shouting, “fire on the engine, let me get out!” That trigged “widespread panic" and prompted many passengers to get up and start retrieving their belongings. Some climbed over seats and began obstructing the aisle.

Three large men insisted the evacuation occur, pushing past a flight attendant and going down a slide before it had fully deployed – causing it to deflate and become unusable.

“Cabin crew training emphasizes assertive command presence and passenger control during evacuations; however, this event demonstrates how rapidly escalating passenger behavior can affect evacuation dynamics even in the absence of confirmed fire or smoke conditions,” according to the report.

The incident in Denver came a day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed while on the job at the Orlando International Airport. In a statement, the airline said the employee was killed Thursday night without providing details of the incident or the name of the employee.

“We are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time,” the airline said. “We are working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway to determine what occurred.”

AP reporter John Raby contributed from Charleston, West Virginia.

Frontier Airlines jetliner number n646fr sits outside the airlines technical operations center with other jetliners in for service north of Denver International Airport Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Frontier Airlines jetliner number n646fr sits outside the airlines technical operations center with other jetliners in for service north of Denver International Airport Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Frontier Airlines jetliner number n646fr sits outside the airlines technical operations center with other jetliners in for service north of Denver International Airport Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)