UEFA Women’s Champions League: Valiant Wolfsburg bow out after extra-time defeat to OL Lyonnes | OneFootball

OL Lyonnes reached the Champions League semi-final for the 15th time with a 4-1 aggregate win over Wolfsburg Frauen. The two-time champions took the game into extra-time before conceding three in the last 20 minutes of the tie.

OL Lyonnes put their visitors under sustained pressure starting from the first whistle. The Frauen-Bundesliga side limited their high-caliber opponents to half-chances last week, but it was inevitable that they conceded quality chances here as Jonatan Giráldez’s troops played with more authority.

And they leveled the score with their first real chance of the night. Lily Yohannes’ deflected effort ended up in the net the same way Lineth Beerensteyn scored the previous week. Wolfsburg’s captain, Janina Minge, who played the latter stage of the weekend’s 3-3 draw with Union Berlin as a goalkeeper, was the unfortunate party.

The hosts had two great opportunities to take the lead in the tie in the following five minutes. Selma Bacha nearly found her range from outside the box before Stina Johannes made her first saves of the game from Lilly Yohannes’ close-range effort and Kadidiatou Diani’s shot from distance.

Wolfsburg had no shots of any kind during the first-half, while they conceded 16 attempts by the hosts. Lilly Yohannes continued that trend after the restart with the first chance inside two minutes. The one-way traffic showed no signs of slowing down, with Johannes alert to parry Bacha’s superb volley.

However, Wolfsburg managed to valiantly defend their box as Ada Hegerberg was unable to get to the end of countless crosses from wide areas. After conceding 25 attempts, the visitors nearly made the most of their first sight in goal in the 77th minute.

Substitute Janou Levels got at the end of Svenja Huth’s superb delivery, but her effort was well saved by Christiane Endler. At the other end, Bascha was thwarted again by Johannes from a direct free-kick before substitute Vicki Bècho missed a glorious opportunity due to a poor first touch.

Despite spending the entire 90 minutes under immense pressure, Wolfsburg did force extra-time. The story was similar there as OL Lyonnes came close twice inside five minutes, including an unbelievable miss by Becho from close range.

The hosts thought they had finally broken Wolfsburg’s resistance when substitutes Becho and Marie-Antoinette Katoto combined for a well-taken goal, but it was annulled for an offside. A couple of minutes later, another substitute had better luck with a VAR call.

Melchie Dumornay scored from a meter out after Johannes misjudged a corner-kick. Before half-time in the extra-time, the Première Ligue outfit extended their lead with yet another goal from a corner-kick.

Damaris Egurrola scored her first Champions League goal in her 47th appearance with a brilliant header inside a crowded box. The Dutch midfielder is also a substitute as Giráldez’s decisions won the tie for the record champions.

Since Wolfsburg were in a defensive mindset all game, it was hard for them to chase the game after the break. Instead, they left plenty of room at the back, which led to a solo strike by Tabitha Chawinga.

OL Lyonnes face holders Arsenal in the repeat of last season’s semi-final, while Bayern reunite with Barcelona in the other clash for the final in Oslo. Before the international break, Stephan Lerch’s side will play against the Frauen-Bundesliga’s bottom-placed team, Carl Zeiss Jena, in the DFB-Pokal semi-final.