Janssen matchwinner for Wolfsburg women, Chelsea knock off title holder Lyon

Chelsea’s footballers achieved a handsome result at Olympique Lyonnais in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Visiting last season’s tournament winner, where Dutch national Damaris Egurrola was in the starting lineup and Danielle van de Donk started on the bench, a 1-0 victory was salvaged.

The second match of the evening – and last of four quarterfinals – brought even more Dutch players onto the field. Paris Saint-Germain, with Jackie Groenen kicking off, hosted German champion VfL Wolfsburg, where Jill Roord and Dominique Janssen were in the starting lineup. Also in the French capital, the home team drew short: 0-1.

Next Thursday are the returns of both duels.

Lyon won the tournament for the eighth time last year through a 3-1 victory in the final over FC Barcelona, and against Chelsea, the losing finalist of 2021, the team showed its desire to make a serious bid for the final victory again this year. Eugenie Le Sommer thought to open the scoring in the early stages, but the ball bounced wide.

While it was waiting for a French goal, the champion of England came out only sparsely. After just under half an hour, however, that did produce the opening goal: Norway’s Guro Reiten curled the ball beautifully around Chilean goalkeeper Christiane Endler into the far corner.

Lauren James almost popped in the 0-2 as well, but the post prevented a bigger deficit for Lyon, who also became dangerous twice themselves. Sara Dabritz shot just wide and Lindsey Horan mowed over the ball in a promising position.

In the second half, Lyon, with Van de Donk also between the lines after 55 minutes, naturally went hunting for the equalizer. It was almost given on a silver platter when Chelsea defender Magdalena Eriksson, substituted for captain Millie Bright shortly before halftime, just handed the ball in and Delphine Cascarino hit the post via Berger’s fingertips.

Soon after, Reiten failed to score her second goal – she hit the side netting – and ten minutes before time, Van de Donk saw an effort go just wide via an English foot.

Over half an hour passed at the Parc des Princes before Paris Saint-Germain and two-time Champions League winner Wolfsburg, who were also losing finalists in 2016, 2018 and 2020, provided some excitement.

PSG attacker Ramona Bachmann cleverly played herself free, but goalkeeper Merle Frohms turned her shot. Moments later, Kadidiatou Diani failed to capitalize on a header chance.

A penalty kick looked like it was going to break the spell after halftime, when Sakina Karchaoui went over the knee on Marina Hegering. But after studying the footage, referee Rebecca Welch did not see a foul in it after all.

All the more sour for the home team that moments later England did penalize Elisa De Almeida, who got the ball kicked against her hand from close range. The involuntary action also cost the Frenchwoman a second yellow card. Janssen then completed the verdict from 11 meters in impeccable fashion: 0-1.

Lieke Martens (PSG) and Lynn Wilms (Wolfsburg) stayed on the bench throughout the match.