Thursday 24 May 2018, 18:57

Lyon need extra time to create history in Europe

  • Lyon win record fifth UEFA Women’s Champions League title

  • French club become first to win European crown three years in a row

  • Lyon come from behind to defeat ten-player Wolfsburg in extra time

Olympique Lyonnais needed extra time to create history in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, as they became the first side to win the title three years in a row after a 4-1 victory over German club Wolfsburg on Thursday evening.

Victory for Lyon at the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine, was also a record fifth European crown for the French club, with Thursday’s match being the third time in six years that these two sides have contested the final.

There was nothing to separate the two clubs during normal time, despite Lyon going closest to scoring just past the midway point of the second half after Noelle Maritz cleared Amandine Henry’s close-range header off the Wolfsburg goalline.

Things came to life in extra time, with Wolfsburg making the initial breakthrough on 93 minutes. Danish forward Pernille Harder made a forward run before turning and finishing past a diving Sarah Bouhaddi in the Lyon goal.

Yet, just as it looked like Wolfsburg had taken command, the German side were reduced to ten players when Alexandra Popp’s late challenge on Delphine Cascarino resulted in a second yellow card and her marching orders from Czech referee Jana Adamkova.

With the extra player, Lyon proceeded to turn the match around with three goals in five minutes during the first period of extra time, as Henry (98’), Eugenie Le Sommer (99’) and Ada Hegerberg (103’) put the holders in control.

Four minutes from the end, former French international and FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup ambassador Camille Abily struck a fine fourth goal for Lyon after coming off the substitutes’ bench, as the French side emphatically sealed another European triumph.