Women’s Champions League: PSG and OL lose in the quarter-finals

The evening did not bring success to the French women. Paris Saint-Germain lost 1-0 to German Wolfsburg in the Women’s Champions League quarter-final first leg at Parc des Princes on Wednesday, March 22, with defending champions Olympique Lyonnais in attendance. English Chelsea also defeated 1-0.

The going gets tough for the Parisians, who must win in Germany next Thursday to reach the last four of the competition, which they have achieved in the last three years (2020, 2021, 2022). The situation is equally delicate for OL, who need to win by two goals in London on March 30 to advance to the semi-finals.

French defender Elisa de Almeida was cautioned for the second time in the match for a handball in the penalty area, which was reduced to ten hours, the Parisians conceded a penalty while dominating the game.

Penalty against the flow of the game

In front of 18,000 Paris fans, Dominique Janssen converted a penalty, whistled after VAR was seen, with a low shot that wrong-footed Sarah Bouhad (62).^e).

Earlier, a penalty eventually disallowed by VAR was a whistle in PSG’s favour: left-back Sakina Karchaoui, who ran at full speed, tripped Marina Hegering in the knee, and the English referee decided there was no foul after reviewing footage of the action.

Despite the numerical inferiority, the partners of the Coupe de France finalist and the current second captain in the championship Grace Geyoro were the first in the duels and got a foot on the ball without any real chances.

PSG’s last defeat dates back to December 22, 2022 against Chelsea (0-3) in the Champions League. Since then, Paris have gone nine games without defeat.

Lyonnaise is not dangerous enough

Like their counterparts from Paris, the Lyon team dominated in the first half. But they didn’t really know how to be dangerous, apart from Eugene Le Sommer’s two on-target chances (9^e) and Sara Dabritz (39^e). They conceded six corners to Chelsea’s two, despite England international Millie Bright’s early departure through injury (43).^e), was sharper.

And Guro Raiten opened the scoring with a shot from the right, following a pass from Erin Cuthbert, who took the ball back at the feet of Lindsey Horan (28).^e).

Chelsea soon had another chance with Lauren James’ effort hitting the post (36^e) and Samantha Kerr missed the free kick in the added time of the first half (45+5).

Shortly after halftime, James and Johanna Ratting Kannerid again forced OL’s Chilean goalkeeper Cristian Endler into two saves in two stages (54).^e89^e) as well as Carey, who hit a long ball (75^e).

Overall, Lyon fell short of their opponents in terms of commitment to the London team’s physical density, but also pace, such as the anonymous performances of Le Sommer, Dsenifer Maroszani or Horan.

However, Olympique Lyonnais could have equalized with Delphine Cascarino’s shot hitting the post after Magdalena Eriksson’s poor recovery from Vicky Becho (61).^e), or on Daniel van de Donk’s shot, off target (81^e).