Full-time: Lyon 3-2 PSG
And that’s that … for now. It’s advantage Lyon, who deserve their win – not least because of PSG’s rancid defensive errors – but it’s still all to play for in Paris.
95 mins: Lyon find time for one last attack, Henry escaping down the right and squaring for Hegerberg, who connects well with a low shot but Votikova makes a good instinctive save with her feet.
94 mins: Great defending by Dudek, who hares back to extinguish a Lyon counterattack then wins a free-kick for her side. The ball is lumped up to Katoto, whose snapshot from the edge of the box zooms just over the bar. What a finish that would have been
90 mins: Hegerberg looks to play in Cascarino after good work down the left by Le Sommer, but Votikova darts off her line to gather the ball at the attacker’s feet.
88 mins: It’s starting to look like both sides might be happy with this scoreline, PSG passing it around their back four and Lyon standing off.
83 mins: PSG attack again and again it’s a surge from Diani that provides the catalyst, but Endler is the saviour for Lyon when she steams off her line to collect Cascarino’s delivery.
80 mins: PSG swap one 18-year-old for another, Fazer going off for Folquet. The ever-likely Diani bolts past Morroni and into the Lyon box, but her dinked cross can’t find a taker and the hosts clear.
77 mins: Lyon march forward again but Votikova does well to claim Horan’s sweeping cross. PSG send on Bachmann, the hero of the quarter-final, for Baltimore.
75 mins: Fazer latches on to a clever through-ball from Geyoro and slots home coolly, but she had strayed offside.
72 mins: Lyon are in the hunt for a fourth, Diani called on to track back and tackle the rampaging Carpenter. Diani is up the other end a minute later, looking to get on the end of Lawrence’s cross after some lovely footwork from the right-back.
69 mins: PSG get away with some more comical defending, this time when Geyoro tries to play her way out of trouble in the box, has her pocket picked by Horan and then brings the attacker down clumsily. But the flag is up for offside.
67 mins: Bacha goes off with what looks like a possible concussion, replaced by Morroni. Le Sommer also replaces Malard.
62 mins: PSG attack, Lyon counterattack and PSG countercounterattack, the latter move terminated with extreme prejudice when Cascarino is hauled down by Karchaoui. The game has opened up.
Goal! Lyon 3-2 PSG (Dudek 58)
Dudek blams her spot-kick inside Enler’s right-hand post. The keeper got a fingertip to it but the penalty was too well struck. Game on! Again!
Updated
Penalty to PSG
A lifeline for the visitors who get a fairly laughable penalty thanks to a VAR review after the ball is blasted at Malard’s hand from point blank range.
Goal! Lyon 3-1 PSG (Macario 51)
Oh my oh my. Macario dribbles into the PSG box but Dudek dispossess her. The ball rolls back to Votikova who – apparently worried about handling a potential backpass – gets caught in a moment of inexplicable indecision, ultimately doing nothing and leaving the ball to roll between her feet. She runs back to rectify the situation but Macario dispossesses her on the line and taps home to make it three.
48 mins: A Lyon attack fizzles out when Hegerberg’s volleyed pass to Malard is just overhit. PSG clear and benefit from some great hold-up play by Katoto, who brings down a long ball on the halfway line and, without a teammate in sight, squirms away from her marker to win a free-kick
46 mins: PSG start positively. Katoto peels wide right and finds Diani, whose lofted ball toward Baltimore is headed away by Renard.
Right then. The teams are back out and we have a very tasty second half ahead of us. Lyon have been the better side by a distance – aided by their opponents’ fretful defending – but PSG look dangerous every time they attack, with Katoto the standout player.
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Half-time: Lyon 2-1 PSG
And that’s the last action of the half. The scoreline is about right, I’d say, and there’s more goals in this one.
44 mins: Good link-up play between Lyon’s front three: Hegerberg nods down to Cascarino, who lays off to Malard. Her first-time shot is deflected over, and from the corner Hegerberg contorts her body in mid-air to head over with a nervy Votikova in no man’s land.
40 mins: Cascarino strorms infield and sets her sights on the PSG bos, but Karchaoui matches her stride for stride and puts in a great slide tackle. Then Dudek gives the ball away with a criminal square ball across her own box, only let off the hook when Hegerberg volleys over. PSG are making life very hard for themselves at the back.
37 mins: PSG respond well to going behind, Lawrence striding into midfield and attempting a through-ball to Diani. It’s cut out by a backtracking Bacha, who cuts short PSG’s next attack too by robbing Katoto and winning a free-kick.
Goal! Lyon 2-1 PSG (Macario 34)
Votikova mis-hits a goal kick straight to the feet of Hegerberg, who kills the ball with her first touch and plays in Macario with her second. Macario scampers clear, closes in, and hits a very saveable left-foot shot that beats Votikova at her near post. Oh dear.
Updated
30 mins: Renard, in the thick of the action today, goes down with a knock after dispossessing Katoto at full stretch. She gets up in time to see some great work from Geyoro, appearing from nowhere to snuff out a promising Lyon attack.
27 mins: A first sight of goal for Hegerberg, who finds herself marked tightly by two defenders as she picks up the ball in the PSG box, and can’t quite wriggle free. She follows it up 30 seconds later with a speculative 40-yard lob that sails well over.
Goal! Lyon 1-1 PSG (Renard 24)
The giant Lyon skipper, skinned by Katoto for the opener, makes amends by sweeping the penalty confidently home.
Updated
Penalty to Lyon
Cascarino scampers down the right and picks out Malard, whose shot is saved by Votikova. But the keeper palms the ball back out into the danger zone and then takes out Malard when she gets to the loose ball first.
18 mins: Lyon survive a flurry of corners before PSG attack smartly from open play, Dabritz feeding Katoto, whose square ball towards Diani is intercepted at the last by a sliding Renard.
16 mins: It’s PSG on the attack now, Fazer getting forwards down the right and picking out a supremely confident Katoto, who attempts a half-volley on the spin but slices it high and wide.
14 mins: Lyon redouble their attacking efforts, Macario scuttling down the right and rifling in a cross, well cut out by an alert Dudek.
10 mins: That goal stands after a lengthy VAR check, presumably for offside, and from kickoff Lyon resume their position, camped inside the PSG half. But their play is all happening in front of the away defence. PSG skipper Geyoro gets the first booking of the game for bundling over Horan, who was escaping on the counter.
Goal! Lyon 0-1 PSG (Katoto 6)
PSG take the lead with their first proper attack of the game. Buchanan is the culprit for Lyon, trying to overelaborate in the right-back position when Baltimore pounces, robs her of the ball and sends it to the feet of Katoto. The striker spins, waltzes around Renard and slides a cheeky finish inside Endler’s near post. Game on!
Updated
5 mins: The commanding Votikova does well to claim an inswinging cross from Bacha. Lyon come back, though, Carpenter and Horan linking up well down the right before Cascarino slices a cross high and back into the hands of Votikova.
2 mins: Diani shuffles past her marker in midfield and fizzes a ball into the feet of Katoto, who can’t bring it under her spell.
1 min: And we’re off. Lyon get the ball rolling and attack tidily down the left before Horan gets on the end of a low cross but can’t connect cleanly.
The teams are out and game faces are affixed as the players line up for the Champions League anthem.
A big day for Wendie Renard who makes her 100th appearance in this competition – the first player in history to do so.
Here’s what happened in the other semi-final first leg two days ago. Fair to say we know the identity of one of the teams who’ll be in the final:
The teams!
Lyon: Endler; Bacha, Renard, Buchanan, Carpenter; Henry, Macario; Horan, Cascarino, Hegerberg; Malard. Subs: Benyahia, Bouhaddi, Gunnarsdottir, Holmgren, Laurent, Le Sommer, Mbock, Morroni, Sombath.
PSG: Votikova, Lawrence, Ilestedt, Dudek, Karchaoui; Fazer, Geyoro, Dabritz; Diani, Katoto, Baltimore. Subs: Bachmann, Cascarino, De Almeida, Folquet, Huitema, Ildhusoy, Khelifi, Le Guilly, Luana, Picaud, Voll
Premble
Are they sick of each other yet? Almost certainly. For the sixth time in eight years, France’s big two lock horns in the knockout stages of the Women’s Champions League – and with as little to separate the sides as ever. Last year PSG edged through on away goals, the year before that Lyon won a nerve-racking game 1-0 en route to the trophy.
Seven-times competition winners Lyon perhaps go into this one as marginal favourites: they sit five points ahead of PSG in the league and can look back on a 6-1 victory over their rivals in November – although an early red card for Ashley Lawrence on that day may have lent the result a slightly freakish nature, a suspicion confirmed when the Parisians ran out 3-0 winners in January’s Coup de France meeting.
Both sides reached the last four in dramatic fashion, Lyon overturning a first-leg deficit to see off Juventus and PSG requiring a heroic extra-time winner from Ramona Bachmann to edge past Bayern Munich. More drama of that ilk here would be most welcome – and history suggests this tie should hardly be short on knife-edge tension. Buckle up!
