Lily Yohannes during OL Lyonnes – Wolfsburg (Photo by JEFF PACHOUD / AFP)
After having done the hard part in the quarter of an hour of play by coming back to a tie in both confrontations, OL Lyonnes finally had to wait for extra time (4-0) to validate their ticket to the semi-final of the Champions League.
Win and only win. This Thursday evening, Jonatan Giraldez’s speech must have been the simplest of the entire season. Beaten 1-0 in Germany ten days earlier in the first leg, the OL Lyonnes players had no other choice but to win on the return leg. They did it to reset the counters to zero at the end of the 90 minutes, but it took extra time to validate qualification for the semi-final of the Champions League (4-0).
There was inevitably pressure at kick-off because the Fenottes were mathematically eliminated at that precise moment. However, Jonatan Giraldez quickly highlighted the desire not to rush at all costs and to find himself even more against the wall with Wolfsburg’s rapid transitions. Ensuring that this return match would be “a whole different story”the Spanish coach was right. Lyon’s pressing stifled the German team which practically did not get beyond the midfield.
A pressing that hurt Wolfsburg
In this choice to seek high, Giraldez had also concocted some surprises with the presence of Shrader et Johannes in midfield alongside Lindsey Heaps. All to the detriment of Melchie Dumornayannounced as diminished and who started on the bench. The will of OL Lyonnes was immediately visible and a first strike from Shrader in the first minute showed these offensive intentions. However, the Lyon siege did not lead to any big chances before this first goal a quarter of an hour into the game.
Full of will, Diana snatched a ball from a tackle before serving Shrader who found his compatriot Johannes full axis. The young American played well, helped by an opposing deflection. With the counters reset to zero for both confrontations, the Fenottes sought to make the break. Yohannes was not far from the double, five minutes after his first goal, but came up against the goalkeeper. This was also the case for Diani and Bacha.
Endler’s save keeps OL Lyonnes alive
Much more alive at half-time than at kick-off, OL Lyonnes kept the same state of mind after returning from the locker room. A tap from the German goalkeeper prevented Bacha from scoring a nice goal (56th). The pace then ran out of steam, even if Wolfsburg did not appear more dangerous. But as in the first leg, the eight-time European champions knew that it only took one opportunity for the Germans to regain the advantage. It almost happened on a quickly led counter, but Endler made a big save to avoid a complicated scenario ten minutes from the end.
An alert which pushed OL Lyonnes to step up the pace. But Johannes decided to pull out all the stops with this firm hand on a free kick from Bacha (86th). Ultimately, the Germans held on, helped by a lack of intelligence from Lyon in certain situations. So head for overtime. And OL Lyonnes fell back into their mistakes: those of showing ineffectiveness in front of goal. Marie-Antoinette Katoto procrastinated (95th), while Vicki Becho missed the target from close range twice (92nd, 96th).
VAR, player in extension
Doubt and moody gestures began to show. We believed in liberation when we saw Katoto propel the ball into the German goal (98th). But VAR intervened to signal Becho’s offside position throughout the action before crossing… Video assistance was at the center of these extra time since four minutes later, Dumornay’s goal gave rise to long minutes of hesitation. Finally, the break was finally made and even more so with a helmet hit from Damaris (105th+1)! If Inès Benyahia had a great opportunity and Chawinga added to the score with a solitary raid (4-0, 119th), the second half of the extra time did not give rise to very big thrills for the 14,08 spectators present this Thursday.
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