Ellie Carpenter (Image credit: Damien LG - OL)
Ellie Carpenter (Image credit: Damien LG - OL)

In the quarter finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain won 2-1 at Lyon and qualified for the semi-finals thanks to the away goals rule (the aggregate score was 3-3). This was a historic performance in the women’s game as PSG eliminated the five-time defending European champions and ended their 1,788-day reign.

This is how it happened:

Olympique Lyonnais was ahead after the first leg, taking the advantage with a 1-0 away win thanks to Wendie Renard.

However, Paris was dominating. It sounded like it was this year or never for Paris to do something huge and they did – a game for the record books on April 18th 2021 at Groupama Center in Lyon, France.

Olympique Lyonnais played in a 4-2-3-1 system with Ellie Carpenter starting at right-back, while French stars Eugénie Le Sommer and Amandine Henry were on the bench. Against them, PSG put its best team in a 4-3-3 system with a front line of Sandy Baltimore, Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani.

Both teams played intensely from the very beginning of the game.

OL was defending high and showing its willingness to score as soon as possible. Lyon’s pressing was effective, helping them take the lead in the fourth minute when Formiga committed a turnover in the middle of the pitch. Amel Majri passed the ball to Delphine Cascarino but Ashley Lawrence deflected it to the feet of Catarina Macario, and the American superstar scored her first goal in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

Olympique Lyonnais was in a good position to go through the semi-final, but Paris was stung and levelled up its game. The visitors had several opportunities including Sara Däbritz hitting the post (8′), Kadidiatou Diani (10′), and Marie-Antoinette Katoto (14′). PSG’s first goal came from Grace Geyoro in the 24th minute. Kadeisha Buchanan won her duel against Katoto with a strong tackle, however Geyoro won the second ball and scored with a beautiful shot. Lyon hadn’t allowed a goal at home in the UWCL for 492 minutes before Geyoro’s strike.

From this point onwards Olympique Lyonnais looked mentally tired, while physical fatigue may also have been an issue as the team hadn’t played for three weeks due to COVID-related postponements. PSG took control and many attacking waves caused problems for OL’s defence. Baltimore (29′) and Däbritz (32′) had chances while Lyon made some technical mistakes.

1-0 to Paris at halftime

After the interval, Olympique Lyonnais came back with the same intentions as the first half and had the possession, but Paris weren’t giving up and increased their pressing. The game was more balanced at this point until PSG took a psychological advantage – Paris was running for another goal, Lyon was out of form and lacking rigour.

Sarah Bouhaddi saved from Katoto in the 56th minute. Five minutes later, Perle Morroni delivered a long pass to Diani, who centered to the box, with OL’s Wendie Renard deflecting the ball into her own goal.

This was the first time that PSG had scored twice in a game against OL. Paris was now winning 2-1 and ahead thanks to the away goals rule.

OL coach Jean-Luc Vasseur subbed in Amandine Henry and Eugénie Le Sommer in pursuit of a goal, however instead of playing all-out defence, PSG continued to be aggressive and create chances.

PSG almost scored another goal as Ramona Bachmann evaded the defence but Bouhaddi saved her shot (75′). Two minutes later, Baltimore hit the crossbar (77′). In the final seconds of the game, Melvine Malard (90+3′) almost scored an acrobatic goal, with Christiane Endler making the save of the match to deny her.

The game is over.

Paris Saint-Germain are through to the semis and will face FC Barcelona. Olympique Lyonnais face ” a huge disappointment”.

Post-game reactions:

Grace Geyoro: We’re very, very happy. I don’t think we realise what we’ve done yet. We played a great game collectively from start to finish. We knew we had to come here and score two goals. And we did that. We never gave up.”

Jean-Luc Vasseur: “There is a great deal of disappointment. I’ve seen girls impacted. They gave it all. Good preparation for this match was lacking. It would have taken more energy. We made a good start but then we fell back. […] We were missing a little something.”

Sarah Bouhaddi: “The first leg result was not enough. When you play a match, you have to score goals. We didn’t score enough. They came here, they put pressure on us.”

Irene Paredes: “We showed in the first leg and here today that we could create chances and had the potential to go through, but we didn’t forget that Lyon had won the Champions League for the last five years. We had to respect them, but we did our job and we’re very happy.”

Catarina Macario: “We are coming out of a big period of COVID, that did not help us. We still gave the best of ourselves. The game could have been different if we had been able to recover physically.”

Kadeisha Buchanan: “We are disappointed. We gave everything but PSG was very strong tonight. COVID has not helped us physically. We have to turn the page and focus on the championship.”

And Now?

Since the beginning of the 2020-21 season, we could see an open door. OL isn’t as dominant as they have been in previous years, suffering injuries to key players Ada Hegerberg and Griedge Mbock. For the first time in more than a decade, Olympique Lyonnais isn’t leading the French Championship, with only three rounds until the end of the season. The team has lost one trophy and could lose another one.

Their rival PSG is in contention to do the UWCL / D1 Arkema double. PSG is the only team to have beaten OL this season, having done so in both competitions.

We’ll have more answers the next time OL plays PSG – “the championship game” promises to be as tense as ever. May 29th, 2021, save the date!

Camille Thomas
Camille Thomas
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