Women’s C1: Lyon falls on penalties to Chelsea, Paris goes out to Wolfsburg

Lyon, defending champion, fell on penalties to Chelsea (2-1 aet) and Paris Saint-Germain were eliminated at Wolfsburg (1-1) on Thursday in the last two quarter-finals of the Champions League feminine.

For the first time since 2014 there will be no French club in the semi-finals of the competition.

In the semi-finals (April 22 and 29), Chelsea will face FC Barcelona and Wolfsburg against Arsenal.

In the rain at Stamford Bridge, the Lyonnaises, beaten 1-0 in the first leg, managed to catch up with a goal from the Canadian Vanessa Gilles, with a rebound at the near post from a cross from the American Lindsey Horan (77th).

They then thought they had snatched their qualification with a second goal in extra time from the German Sara Dabritz (110th), with a cross shot from the left, but the English equalized in the last seconds on a penalty converted by the Norwegian Maren Mjelde (120+8) and granted after viewing the VAR.

The shots on goal were fatal to the players of Sonia Bompastor, Wendie Renard and Lindsey Horan having seen their shot stopped by the German Ann-Katrin Berger.

Chelsea was a finalist in this women’s C1 in 2021, beaten by FC Barcelona (4-0).

In Wolfsburg, the Parisiennes, deprived in the second half of their center-forward Kadidiatou Diani, hit in the right shoulder after forty minutes, were unable to catch up on the first leg (defeat at the Parc des Princes 1-0), but fell with honors against teammates Alexandra Popp (1-1).

The latter opened the scoring with a superb shot under the bar (20th), then Diani equalized with a header (30th) before being injured.

Finalists of the C1 in 2015 and 2017, the Parisiennes miss the last four of the C1 for the first time in four seasons (semi-finals in 2020, 2021 and 2022).

Wolfsburg has won this women’s C1 twice (2013, 2014) and was beaten three times in the final by Lyon (2016, 2018, 2020).

Quarter-final results

THURSDAY:

(+) Wolfsburg (GER) – Paris SG (FRA) 1-1 (first leg: 1-0)

(+) Chelsea (ENG) – Lyon (FRA) 1-2 (first leg 1-0)

Chelsea qualified 4 shots on goal to 3

Played on Wednesday

(+) FC Barcelona (ESP) – AS Roma (ITA) 5-1 (first leg: 1-0)

(+) Arsenal (ENG) – Bayern Munich (GER) 2-0 (first leg: 0-1)

NB: qualified clubs preceded by the sign (+)