sport news BBC and Sky pundit Alex Scott on Barcelona, England at the Euros and the ...

sport news BBC and Sky pundit Alex Scott on Barcelona, England at the Euros and the ...
sport news BBC and Sky pundit Alex Scott on Barcelona, England at the Euros and the ...

Your starter for ten: Which player has appeared in the most Champions League finals? That's Paolo Maldini and Paco Gento, with eight apiece.

Actually no. That's good, but Eugenie Le Sommer, Wendie Renard and Sarah Bouhaddi have all been in nine finals.

Try this one: Which player has scored the most goals in Champions League finals? Well, Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas have seven goals each.

Alex Scott pictured on BBC presenting duty for an England Lionesses match last year

Alex Scott pictured on BBC presenting duty for an England Lionesses match last year

England will be among the favourites to win this summer's home European Championship

England will be among the favourites to win this summer's home European Championship

But both are trumped by the former Germany international Conny Pohlers, who scored eight times in eight finals.

Clubs to have featured in the most finals? Real Madrid with 16, then AC Milan and Bayern Munich with 11 apiece. Next come Lyon. Hang on, Lyon?

The Champions League record books certainly take on a very different complexion when the men's and women's competitions are combined. Unfamiliar names begin to crop up on the lists we thought we knew so well.

It makes you think - and that's the intention of Heineken's Fresher Football campaign as we approach the business end of the season.

They want to challenge gender bias when it comes to football stats and also quite simple things like Google search results.

Why, for example, does a search for 'Arsenal versus Tottenham' only bring up results and fixtures from the men's game when the women's teams met at the Emirates Stadium literally this week?

That question has certainly crossed the mind of Alex Scott, the player-turned-presenter and pundit who has banged the drum for women's football louder than anyone in modern times.

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Over 90,000 passionate fans packed the Nou Camp to watch Barcelona's women's team

Over 90,000 passionate fans packed the Nou Camp to watch Barcelona's women's team

The sell-out crowd for the Champions League matches has been seen as a watershed moment

The sell-out crowd for the Champions League matches has been seen as a watershed moment

She scored the winning goal when Arsenal won the UEFA Women's Cup in 2007, part of a historic Quadruple, and who was part a 108-game unbeaten league run that went on far longer than the men's Invincibles' streak.

Now Scott, 37, is a familiar face in the studios of the BBC and Sky Sports, offering opinions and insights on both the men's and women's games.

'It's just the way we speak about it. You know we talk about the Invincibles with the Arsenal men, well we were Invincible as well,' Scott tells Sportsmail.

'It's about changing the stereotypes around things like stats when it comes to women's football. It's about making sure we're including everyone because women's football is on the rise now. Why are we excluding them?

'It one of those things that if we change more of it, it becomes the norm. If a young boy sitting in school Googles something and you have both the men's and women's information coming up, that's when mindsets change.

'So when the boys are playing football in the playground at lunchtime, they know it's not just the boys' game but the girls' game as well.'

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Scott scored the decisive goal as Arsenal won the UEFA Women's Cup back in 2007

Scott scored the decisive goal as Arsenal won the UEFA Women's Cup back in 2007

Scott believes the women's game stands on the brink of something truly spectacular and it's hard to disagree.

This season, millions have watched live Women's Super League matches free-to-air on the BBC with Sky Sports also elevating the profile of England's top professional league as never before.

A study from the Women's Sport Trust this week revealed that 17.9million people watched women's sport through to April 2022, compared to 6.7m at the same stage in 2021.

For their Women's Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid, an astonishing 91,553 Barcelona supporters packed the Nou Camp.

Not content with that, 91,648 attended Barcelona's home semi-final against Wolfsburg.

And on top of that, England will this summer host the European Championship. The demand for tickets has been immense, with all three of England's group games, plus the Wembley final, already selling out.

Once again, the BBC will have wall-to-wall coverage of a tournament that has the potential to make household names of the

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