This week saw the Women’s Champions League Quarter Finals, first leg commence.
On Tuesday night saw:
Bayern Munich v Arsenal
Roma v Barcelona
On Wednesday night saw:
Lyon v Chelsea
Paris St-Germain v Wolfsburg
Some shocking results took place, however all four ties are still to play for in the return leg.
The opening quarter final first leg was the early kickoff on Tuesday night. This saw Bayern Munich welcome Arsenal to the Allianz Arena, with a match attendance of 20,000 fans. With there being 41 shots in the entirety of the match, only nine were on target. Out of these nine, one was converted . This was Bayern Munich’s goal, the only goal in the match and it was scored by number 11, Lea Schüller.
She was awarded player of the match, after receiving a rating of 8.5 after the game. Schüller's goal came with just over five minutes of the first half to play. Right back, Maximiliane Rall whipped a brilliant ball into Bayern's top goalscorer this season, who could leap up unmarked, to header it home. This provided Munich with a one goal cushion, heading into the return leg next week.
Roma Vs Barcelona was the game to follow which concluded another 1-0 victory, however to the away side this time around. This was the first time that the two sides had ever met in the Champions League, however the tie did not provide us with a goal thriller. Barcelona's only goal came inside the 34th minute, by 19 year old, Salma Paralluelo. Her left footed shot from outside the penalty box struck into the bottom left corner, sealing the one goal advantage on aggregate. Barcelona dominated possession throughout the match, having 69% possession and a total of 33 shots. They are hoping to turn this dominance into more successful chances in the return leg.
With two games down, there were still two to go. The early kick off on Wednesday's fixtures was Lyon Vs Chelsea. Lyon are the current reigning champions of The Champions League, so Chelsea knew it was going to be a tough leg to face. Erin Cuthbert done superbly in the middle of the park to win the ball back and to stop a dangerous counter attack. She then performed an excellent nut-meg to be able to line up the perfect through ball into Guro Reiten who could slot the ball into the bottom right hand corner, from the left hand side of the box. This opened up the scoring for The Blues, just under the half hour mark, which became to be the vital goal for Chelsea in the match as they beat Lyon by one goal to nil.
The final Quarter final first leg saw Paris St-Germain face Wolfsburg. This match up was extremely close, with either side having exactly 50% possession each. PSG had a total of eight shots, meanwhile Wolfsburg had seven. However, neither side could score in open play and it came down to a Wolfsburg penalty, in the 62nd minute to break the deadlock. The penalty claim arose when Oberdorf headed the ball onto the arm of Elisa de Almeida. The penalty was given for handball and this sealed the 1-0 victory for Wolfsburg, as Janssen struck it home.
With the return leg to come next week, it is still anyones game, as all four Quarter Finals finished as a 1-0 victory. No one is set in stone to reach the Semi Finals just yet, as it is all still too close on aggregate. We will have to wait until next week to find out who reaches a place in the Semi Finals of The Champions League.
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