Arsenal v OL Lyonnes: Women’s Champions League – as it happened
Key events
Suzanne Wrack is on the scene for us at Meadow Park, and here is her match report:
That’s the lot from me, thanks a lot for reading and emailing in. Take care of yourselves – and each other.
Two-goal Melchie Dumornay, via an interpreter, has a chat with Alex Scott on Disney+. “It was a tough match. It’s important to win our first game away from home. But it’s a long competition and we have to keep improving as we go.
“Of course we were motivated to put things right after last season … we put everything into it, and got the result.
“We are among the favourites [for the Women’s Champions League]. There are lots of good teams. We need to keep working hard and improving on the pitch, because that’s what matters.”
“Not the result we wanted,” says Arsenal’s captain Kim Little, speaking to Disney+.
“But there were positives to take, especially after our previous performances in the league. We made mistakes but we showed resilience to stick in it to the end.
“We keep going, we keep working together. We know it can’t be perfect all the time. We’ll come back stronger. We’ve got such quality in this team, as we’ve shown on many occasions.
“It’s a different format … with that comes a cup final every match.”
Dumornay’s double was enough. Arsenal started brightly, and opened the scoring with a lovely early goal by Russo, created by Mead. But overall Lyonnes were the more accomplished team. They capitalised on two defensive mistakes by Slegers’ side but they could have scored a few more on another night.
Lyonnes completed 361 passes to 272 for Arsenal, and had 54% possession. Van Domselaar made nine saves, Endler four. We knew heading into tonight that Arsenal were struggling defensively, and Slegers still has work to do there. And, of course, she needs Leah Williamson back fit ASAP.
Full-time! Arsenal Women 1-2 OL Lyonnes
C’est comme ça.
90 min +4: McCabe pumps a free-kick into the Lyonnes box. It drops to Foord, who cracks a right-footed shot narrowly wide of the post! There are also some appeals for a handball, and it seems that VAR has a look, but nothing doing in terms of a penalty.
90 min +3: The free-kick is clipped to the far post. Van Domselaar claims.
90 min + 1: Brand is fouled by Smith now, with Lyonnes pressing forward again. A very handy attacking set-piece for the visitors to come, and not where Arsenal need to be if they are going to snatch something.
89 min: Johannes fouls Smith. Arsenal would hope to be laying siege to the Lyon goal, at least, but they can’t really get a foothold or exert any sustained pressure.
We’ll have a minimum of six minutes added time. The Arsenal fans are still trying to motivate their team to produce something, a high note to end on.
87 min: Cooney-Cross gets her foot on it in an advanced position and looks to slide a pass in behind. The Lyonnes defending is uncompromising, though.
86 min: Katie McCabe on for Arsenal now, a last throw of the dice by Slegers. Taylor Hinds off.
83 min: Hegerberg makes her presence felt in the middle, trying to head in a very tidy cross by Johannes from the Lyonnes left.
Maanum goes in the book, now, for a late challenge on Bacha. That was definitely a naughty one, after the ball had gone, but Bacha also made the most of it.
82 min: Dumornay, quite understandably, fancies this hat-trick and has another crack. Van Domselaar is equal to it.
80 min: Another 10 minutes for Arsenal to get a point … get a win … get something? In truth, Lyonnes have looked by far more likely to add to their lead, if anything, and they’ve brought plenty of power off the bench.
78 min: The rangy figure of Tarciane goes into the book for what looked like a deliberate handball. The Brazil international protests, but don’t they always?
76 min: Ada Hegerberg joins the fray for Lyonnes, Katoto going off, and Lily Yohannes also joins the action for Korbin Shrader.
Lyonnes have frightening depth. They made nine changes for tonight, and are four out of four in the domestic league.
75 min: Kadidiatou Diani cracks a powerful rising shot from the edge of the area. It’s straight at Van Domselaar, though.
Caldentey is brought off by Slegers, Kyra Cooney-Cross replacing her. Stina Blackstenius also comes on for Arsenal’s goalscorer Russo.
73 min: Earlier, Charles Antaki emailed: “In this Champions League format an early defeat doesn’t matter, right?”
The format means any defeat, even a home defeat, is far from terminal. But I think that will be furthest from the minds of Arsenal’s players. They need a result and threw away a lead with a couple of errors. Still, they have time to get something from this.
70 min: It seems there is a chance for Arsenal to break, but Bacha has other ideas, intercepting a pass in midfield and embarking on a brilliant darting run from left to right. It all ends with more desperate defending to do for Arsenal.
67 min: Emma Hayes is pictured in the crowd. There is time for the TV director to focus on her because Liana Joseph, who just came on for her Champions League debut for Lyonnes, has been taken off injured, looking in considerable pain.
Changes for Lyonnes: Damaris Egurrola on for Lindsey Heaps, Jule Brand on for Joseph, who previously came on for Chawinga.
64 min: Nearly 3-1! Katoto is teed up by Dumornay, who again makes inroads on the Lyonnes right and gets in behind the defence. The France international striker pokes a shot looking for the near corner, meeting a sweetly-struck low cross, and it flashes just wide!
60 min: Chawinga dances into the Arsenal penalty area and tries to slide a low shot, left-footed, back to the far post. It’s well wide and the home crowd jeers – but it’s more evidence that Lyonnes are firmly in control of this match.
57 min: Again Dumornay threatens. Lyonnes build a decent attack and the Haiti international, who has already scored twice, thunders a right-footed shot from distance looking for her hat-trick. It’s blocked almost at source by an Arsenal body, though.
56 min: Slegers changes it up. Caitlin Foord on for Chloe Kelly, Olivia Smith on for Beth Mead.
53 min: Bacha is released on the Lyonnes left by a tremendous searching pass from midfield, diagonally from right to left. The full-back races into acres of space but Arsenal manage to deal with her low ball across. Still not convincing.
Now Caldentey belts a shot from the edge of the area, at the other end, tipped over by Endler.
52 min: The Arsenal fans are still in fine voice. The intensity of the match drops slightly after a full-on first half.
49 min: Truth is, Arsenal were the better side for the first 15 minutes when they played some excellent possession football, but their confidence is visibly depleted. Having ceded the initiative to Lyonnes with a couple of howlers, they don’t look to have the tools to take it back at the moment.
48 min: Arsenal create the first opening of the second half. A set-piece causes some panic in the visitors’ defence but they manage to clear their lines.
Second half kick-off!
Here we go.
Some half-time reading/listening, starting with Suzanne Wrack on the new Women’s Champions League format:
Half time: Arsenal Women 1-2 Lyonnes
Russo’s goal was an excellent start, but Arsenal threw away their lead with two terrible defensive errors. The first was simply defensive suicide, the second was partly due to excellent pressing by Lyonnes. Work to do.
45 min: One minute added, minimum.
