Chelsea’s 2018/2019 UEFA Women’s Champions League hopes were ended at the semi-final stage as The Blues fell narrowly short against reigning European champions Lyon.
FA Women’s Super League Full-Time take a look back at the second leg of that semi-final tie as Chelsea were tasked with turning around a 2-1 deficit from the first leg in France.
The UEFA Women’s Champions League trophy was the one piece of silverware missing from Chelsea’s trophy cabinet and a mammoth task against Lyon in the second leg of their semi-final tie at Kingsmeadow got all-the-more difficult 17 minutes in when Eugenie Le Sommer’s scuffed effort hit Blues defender Maren Mjelde before the ball rolled into the back of her own net.
Despite being 3-1 down on aggregate, Chelsea’s heads did not drop and a sweetly struck free-kick from Ji So-yun soon had Emma Hayes’ side back in the tie.
The Blues came out flying in the second half and Karen Carney was desperately unlucky not to pull the aggregate score level when she curled an effort across goal onto the far post.
Set pieces looked to be Chelsea’s greatest opportunity of a second goal with Lyon having to hack the ball away to safety on a couple of occasions. The best opportunity fell to Drew Spence 10 minutes from time but she couldn’t direct her shot on goal when being found at the back post by an Erin Cuthbert free-kick delivery.
The tie ended 1-1 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate in Lyon’s favour with the French club going on to lift the trophy for a sixth time.