After the elimination of Paris SG a little earlier, by Wolfsburg (1-0, 1-1), there will be no French club in the last square of the C1.

Chelsea will face in the semifinals, at the end of the month, Barcelona, who easily defeated AS Roma (1-0, 5-1), while Arsenal will meet Wolfsburg.

Eight times title holders in C1 and in the last four of the competition in six of the last seven editions, OL have reason to be very bitter after this cruel epilogue.

The French had learned the lessons of their too agreed performance of the first leg taking the match head on, even if we still wonder how Signe Bruun, alone in front of the goal, ten meters away, could unscrew his recovery to this point and not put the two teams back on level terms in the 4th minute.

A few seconds before, Cascarino had already stumbled on Ann-Katrin Berger, while Bruun again missed the frame on a more delicate recovery, after a center of Ellie Carpenter (5th).

Chelsea goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger stops Lyon midfielder Lindsey Horan's penalty shootout in the Champions League quarter-finals on March 30, 2023 at Stamford Bridge © JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP

Even if the debates were then largely rebalanced and that Christiane Endler had to come out with two beautiful interventions - winning her face-to-face with Sam Kerr left on the edge of offside (16th) before deflecting over her crossbar a beautiful strike from Lauren James (23rd) - Sonia Bompastor's players never lost the thread.

The almost decisive bench

At the break, the Lyon coach launched Ada Hegerberg, the first female Ballon d'Or, back from a long leg injury.

She revived her team's offensive machine in the second half with a lobbed header too crossed (63rd).

But the reward came a little later from a 100% North American goal, with a fiery overflow from Lindsey Horan and a center to the rope that Vanessa Gilles came to cut at the first post to deceive Berger in an unlikely angle (0-1, 77th).

Almost logical on the whole of the two matches, the extra time has long been sterile, although lively.

It was finally the Lyon bench and the substitute Sara Däbritz, found by Hegerberg in the background, who almost made the decision of a winning pivot strike (0-2, 110th).

But while Chelsea seemed at the end of their rope and had not been dangerous throughout the extra time, James went for a very questionable penalty that required long minutes of reflection to the referee in front of the video images.

Despite Lyon's protests, Maren Mjelde procrastinated less to transform it into the skylight and send everyone to penalties (1-2, 120+8).

Chelsea players qualify for the semi-finals of the Champions League, after a penalty shoot-out against defending champions Lyon on March 30, 2023 in Stamford Brigde © JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP

Wendie Renard missed the third French attempt, then James the fourth English before Horan saw his final attempt repelled by Berger who made Lyon inconsolable after this cruel defeat.

© 2023 AFP