Chelsea Women make a challenging trip to France to face the holders Lyon Women for the first leg of the quarterfinals in the 2022/23 Women’s Champions League.
LYN-W vs CHL-W Match Details
Date: Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Time: 23:15 (IST)
Venue: Groupama Stadium, Lyon
LYN-W vs CHL-W Match Preview
Lyon Women
Lyon Women were almost exiting the Champions League early in the group stages after a slow start to the season. They began with a heavy 5-1 loss to Arsenal Women at home followed by a disappointing 1-1 draw against Juventus Women in Turin. However, the champions began to show their character in the remaining games as they picked up three consecutive wins in the group stages, beating Arsenal away and with a 0-0 draw in the last match against the Italian counterpart to progress to the quarterfinals. They kept a clean sheet in each of the last four Champions League games in a remarkable turnaround to their defensive solidity. By virtue of finishing second, the French champions were drawn with the winners of England in Chelsea Women whom they are unbeaten against in this contest. It will be a tricky encounter for Lyon even if they have progressed 12 out of 13 times from this stage. The hosts have won all of their four games in 2023 and are hopeful to take a good lead into the second leg next week.
Chelsea Women
Chelsea Women regained top-spot in the Women’s Super League with a crucial 1-0 win over title challengers Manchester United Women and carried the momentum with a 3-1 win over Reading in the FA Cup on Sunday. Aside from the League Cup loss to Arsenal Women, Emma Hayes’s side had dropped points only twice in all competitions since their defeat in the WSL opener to Liverpool Women. The emphatic showing from the Blues also occurred in Europe with wins in five of the six group-stage games, scoring 18 and conceding just once. That too in the 1-1 draw against Real Madrid Feminino in the last group-stage game having already secured qualification to the last eight. It was certainly better than the previous season when they were dumped out of the group stages after reaching the 2020/21 final. A quarterfinal clash against the record champions will be a colossal task but the Blues could draw inspiration of not being eliminated from this stage in the Champions League.
Recent Form (all competitions)
LYNW: WWWWW
CHLW: WWWLWW
Recent Form (Champions League)
LYNW: DWWWDL
CHLW: WWDWWW
LYN-W vs CHL-W Team News
Lyon Women
Griedge Mbock and Catarina Macario will miss out for Lyon due to injuries while Amandine Henry is out for six weeks due to a knee ligament injury. Star striker Ada Hegerberg could return after her long injury layoff and if passed fit will take a place on the bench.
Chelsea Women
Chelsea have no new injury concerns other than Fran Kirby, Pernille Harder and Katerina Svitkova all sidelined. Erin Cuthbert is a major doubt for the midweek clash after missing the last three games. Manager Emma Hayes will call back a lot of first-teamers who were rested at the weekend in the FA Cup win over Reading.
LYN-W vs CHL-W Predicted Lineups
LYNW: Christiane Endler; Ellie Carpenter, Vanessa Gilles, Wendie Renard, Selma Bacha; Lindsey Horan, Damaris Egurrola, Sara Dabritz; Delphine Casarino, Dzsenifer Marozsan, Eugiene Le Sommer
CHLW: Ann-Katrin Berger; Eve Perisset, Kadeisha Buchanan, Millie Bright, Jessica Charles; Melanie Leupolz, Sophie Ingle; Lauren James, Jessie Fleming, Guro Reiten; Sam Kerr
LYN-W vs CHL-W Head to Head
LYNW won - 1
Draw - 1
CHLW - 0
(In Women’s Champions League)
LYN-W vs CHL-W Dream11 Team Prediction
GK: Berger (8)
DEF: Carter (8), Renard (9), Bright (7.5), Bacha (8)
MID: Cankovic (8), Marozsan (8), Horan (9)
FW: James (8), Kerr (9), Reiten (9)
Vice-captain: Lauren James
Captain: Sam Kerr
