And one more coronation. For an ogre appetite. Lyon won its seventeenth French women’s football champion title after its 2-1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain on Friday after a dull Division 1 play-off final at Groupama Stadium, a little over one week before the Champions League final.
Against PSG, OL’s record this season is clear: five wins and one draw in the six confrontations between the two teams. The Lyonnaises had relegated the Parisiennes (2nd) eleven lengths at the end of the regular season to the point of complaining about having to play a four-way final phase for the attribution of the title, a novelty, with the risk of losing everything , the title and qualification for the Champions League, of which they will play the final on May 25 against FC Barcelona.
This was not the case as the superiority of the Rhone club over the championship was great, like the semi-final won against Reims on May 12 (6-0). Elimination in the semi-final of the Coupe de France on penalties, at home against FC Fleury, was OL’s only real misstep so far this season.
Friday, at the Groupama stadium, in front of around 15,000 spectators, far from the 38,000 people who had supported OL against PSG in the C1 semi-final first leg, the Lyonnaises, during a boring match, took a decisive lead in the first period.
They notably benefited from the nightmarish performance of PSG goalkeeper, Polish Katarzyna Kiedrzynek. This one closed its angle very badly on the opener signed Delphine Cascarino, on the left wing, who had overtaken Jade Le Guilly after being well alerted by Daniele Van de Donk (18).
Lyon quickly added a second goal with an incredible action during which Kiedrzynek had the ball stolen from his feet by Melchie Dumornay before letting Kadidiatou Diani’s shot served by Dumornay (23rd) pass between his legs. Just before half-time, a header from Damaris Egurrola receiving a corner narrowly missed (39th).
Faced with the mastery of the Lyonnaises, especially in the first period, who despite everything did not have so many chances, the PSG players seemed without a solution despite two attempts from Sandy Baltimore and Tabitha Chawinga on which the Chilean goalkeeper of OL, Christiane Endler intervened well (21, 35).
However, she had to bow to Chawinga who reduced the score to 2-1 after a first shot from the Malawian repelled by Endler (73) who again made a final save in front of the Parisian attacker (90 4). But the offensive record of Jocelyn Prêcheur’s players was ultimately too meager to hope to win. In Bilbao, on May 25, OL will certainly have to raise their level against an expected opposition that is probably tougher than that of PSG.