Former women’s world footballer of the year Ada Hegerberg scored one of the goals that gave Lyon a 3-1 win over Juventus and a Champions League semi-final clash against French rivals Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday.
Norwegian star Hegerberg opened the scoring on 33 minutes, tucking away a cross from the left by Selma Bacha.
It was her 57th career goal in the tournament.
That made the quarter-final tie 2-2 on aggregate after the Italians had edged the first leg 2-1.
Two minutes later, seven-time champions Lyon were ahead on the night and in the tie thanks to Melvine Malard who headed home a cross delivered by American international Lindsay Horan.
Another American, Catarino Macario added the third after 63 minutes before Andrea Staskova grabbed a late consolation for Juventus.
“We are very happy with the qualification. We came back in the tie and won this game. I tried to keep it simple today. I will continue to work hard in training for the next matches,” said Hegerberg.
Malard added: “Ada’s goal inspired us. The important thing was to go ahead today. The team was good, we didn’t give up, which is great.”
Lyon have now won 17 of their last 18 Women’s Champions League home games -– their sole defeat, however, was against PSG.
Earlier, former Arsenal player Jill Roord scored as Wolfsburg defeated the London side 2-0 to set-up a semi-final clash with holders Barcelona.
Dutch international Roord, who spent two seasons with the English club before leaving for Germany in 2021, opened the scoring after just nine minutes after Arsenal failed to clear a corner.
Wolfsburg continued to dominate and the unfortunate Lea Williamson put through her own goal in the 73rd minute as she tried to block a dangerous cross from Iceland international Sveindis Jane Jonsdottir.
Victory gave Wolfsburg a 3-1 aggregate win after the first leg of their quarter-final ended 1-1 in London last week.
“We were very dominant, especially in the first half. We defended a bit differently in the second half, but the way we executed our game plan across 90 minutes was great,” said Wolfsburg coach Tommy Stroot.
Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall bemoaned what he considered his team’s misfortune.
“A lot of things happened. I think we could have played better in the first half. We knew it would be a game of fine margins and it was, but we hit the bar, the post and they didn’t go our way,” he explained.
On Wednesday, a world record crowd for a women’s football match of 91,553 saw Barcelona cruise into the semi-finals by thrashing Real Madrid 5-2 at Camp Nou on Wednesday to seal an 8-3 win on aggregate.
Paris Saint-Germain needed extra-time to secure a 2-2 home draw with Bayern Munich to progress 4-3 on aggregate.
AFP
