World Soccer - UK (2022-06)

Lyon want

their title

back

This year’s UEFA Women’s Champions
League final will have the stamp of a
heavyweight title unification bout.
In theBlaugranacorner stands the
holders Barcelona, the women’s game’s
new dominant force. Facing them in
Turin will be Olympique Lyon, the
revived all-conquering predecessors.
By the time the trophy is presented
onMay21wewillknowwhetherBarca
have truly usurped Lyon’s crown, or
were merely keeping it warm while
Ada Hegerberg was injured.
To suggest Barcelona’s title last year,
sealed with an emphatic 4-0 win over
Chelsea, was merely because of the
Norwegian’s absence is to overstate the
case, but Lyon had won the previous
five competitions with Hegerberg in
the team, the striker scoring 48
goals in 39 games in the process.
However, the 25-year-old ruptured
the anterior cruciate ligament in her
right knee inJanuary 2020, missed
the latter part of Lyon’s COVID-delayed
success that season, and didn’t return
until November 2021. While she was
away Lyon were knocked out at the
quarter-final stage of last season’s
Champions League by Paris Saint-
Germain, who also broke Lyon’s
14-year hold on the domestic title.
Now Hegerberg is back and she has
quickly regained form, scoring in both
Lyon’s quarter-final defeat ofJuventus
and a semi-final revenge win over PSG.
With Lyon well placed to regain their
domestic pre-eminence, toppling
Barcelona is next on the agenda.
“There was women’s football before
Barcelona, and it was played here for
years,” Hegerberg said pointedly in April.
She added: “We have to win again to

regain our place in world football.”

Barcelona will not be easy to

dethrone. There is a real sense of

momentum around the Catalan giants,

bolstered by successive world-record

attendances at the Nou Camp.

Barcelona recorded the highest

official attendance for a women’s match

when 91,553 spectators watched their

quarter-final second leg against Real

Madrid. A 5-2 win gave them an

8-3 aggregate victory.

The Nou Camp crowd (socios

attended free, others paid) must have

enjoyed the experience. Even more

turned up (91,648) for the first leg of

their semi-final. This was despite the

opposition being the less glamorous

Wolfsburg rather than theirClasico

arch-rivalsfromthecapital.

They were rewarded with another

sparkling display of football in a 5-1 win.

Wolfsburg, seemingly overawed by the

atmosphere and missing defensive shield

Lena Oberdorf, conceded twice in the

opening ten minutes through Aitana

Bonmati and Caroline Graham Hansen.

Barca were 4-0 up by the 38th, through

Jenni Hermoso and Alexia Putellas. After

Jill Roord pulled a goal back, Putellas,

holder of multiple world player of the

year awards, restored the four-goal

cushion with a late penalty.

It could have been many more but

for Wolfsburg keeper Almuth Schult,

who made16 saves as Barcelona

launched wave after wave of attacks.

That was Barcelona’s 40th victory

in 40 matches this season. However,

that run was brought to an end in front

of 22,057 in Germany. Wolfsburg, who

should have scored more than once in

the first leg, played with a far greater

intensity. By the hour-mark it was 5-3

on aggregate with Tabea Wassmuth

and Roord scoring.

Barca held on but their display will

give Lyon hope, as will the fact that Real

Madrid led in both legs of the quarter-

final. Not that OL lack belief after seeing

off PSG in both legs, albeit narrowly.

Glenn Moore

Women’s Football

Holders...

Barcelona

celebrate their

fifthgoalv

Wolfsburg

“There was women’s football before Barcelona, and

it was played here for years. We have to win again

to regain our place in world football”

Lyon forward Ada Hegerberg

French side will attempt

to reclaim the Champions

League crown for a record

eighth time against current

holders Barcelona