Europe 1 with AFP 21:34 p.m., March 22, 2023

The OL women, defending champions, were dominated on Wednesday by Chelsea (1-0), at Groupama Stadium, in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League. The Lyon players will have to win by two goals in the second leg to get a ticket for the next round.

The women of Olympique Lyonnais, reigning European champions, put themselves in a bad position by conceding a defeat (1-0) at Groupama stadium in the quarter-final first leg of the Women's Champions League against the English club Chelsea. The second leg will be played on March 30 in London but clearly, OL will have to show much more to hope to reverse the trend after this first round. We will have to win by two goals.



⏰ The Blues seal a big first-leg triumph over the reigning champions in France! #UWCL // @ChelseaFCW

— UEFA Women's Champions League (@UWCL) March 22, 2023

The Lyonnaises, handicapped by numerous absences due to injuries (Macario, Hegerberg, M'Bock, Henry) who must still, to say the least, challenge, rather dominated the first half. But they were not really able to be dangerous except on two unframed opportunities from Eugenie Le Sommer (9) and Sarah Däbritz (39).

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OL inferior

In the end, they obtained six corners against two at Chelsea who, despite the premature exit of the English international Millie Bright on injury (43), was more incisive. And Guro Reiten found the opening with a shot wrapped in from the right after a pass from Erin Cuthbert who had recovered the ball into the feet of Lindsay Horan (28). Chelsea quickly had more chances with an attempt by Lauren James that hit the post (36) while Samantha Kerr narrowly missed the frame in added time of the first half (45+5).

Shortly after half-time, James and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd again pushed OL's Chilean goalkeeper, Christiane Endler, to two parries in two periods (54, 89) as did Kerr who shot narrowly wide (75). Overall, Lyon were inferior to their opponent in terms of commitment to face the physical density of the London team but also rhythm, like the anonymous performances of Le Sommer, Dzsenifer Maroszan or Horan.

Olympique Lyonnais could have equalized, however, on a shot from Delphine Cascarino, hitting the post after a bad restart by Magdalena Eriksson on Vicki Becho (61), or on a shot from Daniëlle van de Donk, not framed (81). But the replacements made by coach Sonia Bompastor have brought nothing, or at least not enough.