098' 1-1 Lyon serve(?) from ~midfield right touch to 28m arc right. Goeßling half-volleys but muffs the clearance, ball pops up and drops to Ada Hegerberg. One-touch volley chip bounces at 18m arc right. Henry outruns Wedemeyer by 1/2 step, jump-lunges ahead of her foot and taps ball to self, follows to 9m 6-right and pulls right foot shot across mouth, rising over Schult's right shoulder into back left high. 099' 1-2 Marozsán leaves ball in van de Sanden's stride down box right, she blazes by gassed Wedemeyer with pure speed, 1/2 step ahead to 5m mid-right. van de Sanden drives a low cross to 3m right post, Schult falls toward it but Le Sommer micro-pokes it under Schult's right armpit -- and it bounces past Blässe, through goalline center.
FB and when it's clear that van den Sanden is gonna win every battle outside you better mark your woman at the center once the cross comes in. If you make it so easy to score right in front of your goal blame has to go to the rest of the defense as well. Wolfsburg didn't have any offensive flair/will all game anyway (outside of the one woman show Harder). Well deserved win for Lyon.
102' 1-3 Wolfsburg left throw-in at 5m, to Harder(?) at box left. Ball bounces up her torso and over her, Bronze heads it to box top. Henry heads it away to Goeßling, bad one-touch square pass stolen by Le Sommer. Le Sommer promptly longballs up wide right -- into the path of van de Sanden with that pace and fresh legs. 3-v-2 sprint from midfield to 2m wide right -- D. Cascarino has her own pace, flies through box to 7m 3-right, decoy run drags Fischer with her. Nobody at all is on A.Hegerberg trailing through box top left post. van de Sanden crosses outswinging to 8m right post, Hegerberg veers to ball and half-volleys across mouth. Schult dives and gets a touch, but can't push it wide -- it bounces into back left edge. Wolfsburg must be running on fumes.
They scored again? 114' 1-3 Lyonnais subs in (3 of 3) #23 Camille Abily for #9 Eugénie Le Sommer. 116' 1-4 Bronze right throw-in at circle back, heaved up wide right sideline toward arc top. A.Hegerberg (she looks gassed herself) cleverly dummies a header, lets ball bounce untouched behind her down box right. van de Sanden flies past gassed Wedemeyer, 2m ahead to 8m mid-right. Backpass to 13m 6-right, again Fischer is stranded between voids. Abily is unmarked through box top, one-touch left instep chip beats Schult's dive, bounces just inside left post low. FT 1-4. van de Sanden had three assists in 22', and set up Ada for a fourth but Ada couldn't run any more.
Yes, Shanice Van de Sanden was the heart and soul of this third consecutive OL's win: you quite can't believe that she wasn't started, but in fact, vs tired legs late in the game she was even more devastating that she would probably have been if played since the beginning. She was some kind of "secret weapon" (not so secret, actually) and it did work: she enters at 95' (!) and completely turns the game around. Saki Kumagai had to be make place for her, but I have no problems admitting that that substitution had to be done. Congratulations to OL: Wolfsburg, actually didn't even seriously try. Even before extra-time, OL had constantly looked like the best team all game.
Really? It even was a fracture, from that collision with Bronze at the end of regular time? Wow, what a warrior Sarah is: she can make incredible mistakes, but also legendary achievements, as taking the winner-PK last year and playing with a broken wrist this year!
Camille Abily scoring in her last Champions' League match, and one of the last of her career overall, was a fantastic seal on the history of a champion. It's just a shame that her and her generation didn't have the same successes with National Team that they had with this incredible club that OL is. I guess the France of Camily and Nécib would have deserved at least to medal at one of the major tournaments.
Lyon was the better team today, dominating the midfield where even Gunnarsdottir and Popp couldn't do anything, and it didn't get better when Gössling partnered Popp when Gunnarsdottir was subbed out due to injury. All of the five goals were scored in extra time, first a deflection goal by Renard (shot Harder) then four Lyon goals where Van de Sanden and a red card to Popp made the difference. Lyon won deserved, but holy crap Wolfsburg fullbacks were exposed how god damn poor/mediocre that they are - Blässe, Maritz and Kerschowski.
Congrats to Lyon. Deserved winner of the Champions League and the first 3peat.It would have been scandalous, if that not given clear goal would have decided the wrong winner. When will the goal-line technology make it`s way? P.S. Popp had me laughing. " I kicked the ball "
I am going to tell you that, after rewatching it multiple times, I am still not fully persuaded that the ball had completely passed the line. It probably had, but one of the replays from behind the goal left me doubtful. Well, that tackle was directly on the ankle: the ball was traveling meters away by the time Popp was sliding towards Cascarino's legs. You could have even made a case for a direct RC. By the way, I can't remember Popp's first Yellow, at the moment: what it was? Anyway, I guess no-one can say OL was favoured by the referee: the ball saved on the goal-line could have been goal or not, but the call didn't go Lyon-side. And I'd say Popp's Red Card was crystal clear. Apart from the fact that OL had clearly been the best side, they didn't have it easy and there isn't any kind of shadow over their victory
To me it looked 100 % over the line. Thank God we won`t have any Wembley discussions over it. I don`t know what Popp was thinking. Such a tackle in no-mans land really can give you a straight red. Her first yellow was that high boot.. On another note,...van de Sanden. What a player to have and bring in extra-time. Even better and more precise than Thomis.
Don't forget about Bompastor either! She was about 5yrs too early I guess. I hated her whenever the Athletica lost to the Freedom, but even my non-soccer-fan parents and friends agreed she was a joy to watch and often the best player on the field.
Why did CGH come out at half time? I hope not an injury or at least just a minor one! A major injury might prove disastrous for Norway with their upcoming WCQ matches coming up in June.
Hypothetical: How would OL do vs. Carolina Courage (since they are currently in first place)? Thoughts? BTW, congratulations to OL and of course, to Ada.
Don't want to dismiss NWSL or Carolina Courage, but frankly I can't see anything but an OL win. When you can afford to keep a Van de Sanden on the bench, to later unchain her and wreak havoc, this not only means that you have the best players, but also that you have the most incredible depth in the world.
In a one-game situation, hard to say - depends on the circumstances of the match. But over a series, I'd easily give it to Lyon. The Courage are very, very good - but NWSL will never produce superclubs of the kind you can get in Europe like Lyon. Depth and play style will (over 2+ games) favor Lyon. But in a one-off game with the potential for smash&grab? Courage could easily do it. I'd guess, if you took a full ten-game series, I'd say one or two draws, two or three Courage wins, and five or six Lyon wins.
Injured. She picked up a slight thigh injury in the German cup final a few days ago, a knock on the backside of her thigh, but apparently this was covered up by her and the club. She took a gamble playing since this was the CL-final, but felt the pain quite early in the game. She couldn't do full sprints, and had to come off. She should be ready for the World Cup qualifiers, from what I hear.
What a Game! What a Team! What a Win! Olympique Lyonnais gains definitely the Legendary club status thnaks to a victory to their best opponent. I would like to start by congratulate Wolfsburg who forced OL to use their last resouces as it has been done very rarely before. It was the greatest WCL final ever because of the emotion, on both side coaches, players, fans, specators which went from desperate to joyful in less than ten minutes.....OL fans and on the opposite direction Wolfsburg fans....Frankly after Harder goal (I still give it to her cause she intentionally shoot on target) I thought it was over then Popp expelled (tough for her but right decision from the referee) Pedros introducing Van de Sanden which havocs won the trophy but also Le Sommer FINALLY scoring in a final, Hegerberg becoming the goal record holder and last and best Camille Anne Françoise ABILY the Legend writing another page in her legendary career.....Well this is something I will remember forever. Tactically talking, Wolfsburg high pressure in the first half and quick counter attacks in the second caused many problems to OL, for the first time the German faced Lyon without any fear.....and rightly because they always had the players to win but not the coach imho, Lerch is clearly an upgrade to Kellermann . Individually great games from Fischer and Pajor who caused headache to Renard as I rarely saw before. Lyon was very good defensively but poor offensively in the first half, 17 years old Bacha impressed in her first final she may start for France at the WC imho. Bronze and Mbock the best OL players (before tornado Shanice came in) both excellent proving once again how very very top players they are. Bouhaddi as I said here many times never disappoints in finals, in big games you can always count on Sarah even with a broken wrist, like her or not she is one of the best around! Renard and less Kumagai showed how reliable they are but it was not easy for them to keep checking Pajor and Harder all game long. Offensive sector was very bad, uninspired in the first half, bad and confused in the second, then first with Cascarino (game changer also) and Van de Sanden OL made the diffrence, yes the pace of both girls was too much for tired German legs but coach Pedros made the right substitution at the right time so congrats for his tactical intuition. Ice on the cake was legend Camille Anne Françoise Abily coming in ....the rest is history or better legendary..
With all my respect to NWSL and Carolina Courage but they have absolutey NO chance to beat Lyon. As simple as That. Not even debatable. True but also OL didn't had Soubeyrand over Henry and Thiney asstarting N10, that's why they won so much..... The biggest mistkae that generation did was to not follow Bompastor when she rebelled herself to the NT coach Bruno Bini. They knew Sonia was right (as she almost always is when it comes to footballl) but were scared to loose their NT place...be blacklisted like many top French players Henry, Lattaf, Tonazzi, Bompastor soon after were by Bini.....They gave too much respect to someone who didn't respected them at all. It was our golden generation biggest mistake which costed them medals or even titles with les Bleues.
I watched till the full 90 minutes (+6 mins added time) but didn't watch the extra time. Anyone has any links for the full match somewhere? It was so even in the 90 + 6 minutes between both sides! Congratulations to Lyon on being champions again though! Thanks!