Lyon captain Wendie Renard shows off the trophy
Photo: Asif Burhan
Lions of Kiev- Lyon overcome Wolfsburg to win UEFA Champions League
by Asif Burhan, Kiev
Two days before Real Madrid attempt to become the first men’s club to win three Champions League titles in a row, Olympique Lyonnais’ women beat them to it in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and also became the first side in the competition’s history to win the UEFA Women’s Champions League five times in a row.
The newly-crowned BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year, Lucy Bronze thus became the first Lioness to win the modern Champions League, 11 years after Arsenal won the UEFA Women’s Cup.
“To be the first English player to lift this trophy is obviously a big deal. Once all the girls seen I’ve done it, I’m sure they’ll think that they’ll be capable of doing it, and that’s exactly what we want. We want the English teams to improve every year and push for trophies like this so that we can push ourselves as an English team as well.”
Lucy Bronze is the first Englishwomen to win the coveted trophy
Photo: Asif Burhan
In the first women’s final to be staged in Eastern Europe, where interest in the game is perceived to be weak, the game’s showpiece once more managed to attract a five-figure attendance, selling out the Valeriy Lobanovsky Stadion and leaving locals queuing for hours in scorching temperatures in the hope of picking up a return from the ticket office.
The match between the champions of Germany and France who had eliminated the two FA WSL representatives, Chelsea and Manchester City in the semi-finals, began at pace but petered out towards the end of normal time as the match seemed destined to become the third final in succession to go to a penalty shoot-out.
In front of watching UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, there was controversy in the 69th minute when Amandine Henry’s looping header was cleared from behind the Wolfsburg line by defender Noelle Maritz unseen by English assistant referee Sian Massey-Ellis. Bronze felt the absence of the VAR system, which will be employed at Saturday’s men’s final, could potentially hold the women’s game back.
“As much as we can do as players on the pitch, we need the referees and goal line technology, we need everything like that to be up to standard as well”.
Eugenie Le Sommer was on the scoreseheet
Photo: Asif Burhan
EXTRA TIME BRINGS GOAL DRAMA
However, as temperatures cooled the game burst into life in extra time as VfL Wolfsburg took the lead when, on the counter attack, Pernille Harder burst into a space vacated by Bronze, pirouetted and shot at goal. A heavy deflection wrong-footed Lyon goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi and broke the stalemate.
Yet within ten minutes, the German side’s dreams or repeating their 2013 final victory over Lyon at Stamford Bridge were decimated by the sending off of their central midfielder Alexandra Popp for a second yellow card which was then compounded by three quick Lyon goals.
It only took two minutes for Henry to capitalise on the space created by the expulsion of her direct opponent in midfield to equalise before strikers Eugenie Le Sommer and Ada Hegerberg each scored before the end of the first period of extra time. Substitute Camille Abily side-footed home a fourth in the second period to cement Lyon’s place in history.
For winning three titles in a row and five titles in all, Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas believes his club should be given the same honour as comparably garlanded men’s teams and allowed to wear the UEFA badge of honour worn by Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Ajax, AC Milan, Liverpool and Barcelona.
“Yes, I asked to have the star!” before praising the European governing body for their commitment to the women’s game. “It is marvellous organisation from UEFA with women’s football. 10 years ago, it was not like this with the media (interest)”.
