Lyon Women Defeats Barcelona To Win The UWCL For A Record Eighth Time.

Lyon reclaim the UEFA Women's Champions League title following a 3-1 victory in the final against Barcelona femeni at the Juventus’s Allianz Stadium in Turin on Saturday night.

Both teams entered the game trying to make history, Barcelona getting their second consecutive treble and Lyon getting their eighth Champions League.

The French team managed to enhance their history, by emerging European champions for an EIGHTH time in 11-years, including a stretch from 2015-16 to 2019-20 when they won it five straight times (2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022), reaffirming their place top of the women’s soccer hierarchy.

The Blaugrana lost their continental crown in Turin after the lost to Lyon.

Lyon defined the game very early in the first half, when Amandine Henry opened the scoring at the 6th minute with a great goal from outside the box and into the top corner, impossible for Sandra Paños.

At the 23rd minute, Norwegian star and one of the best players in the world Ada Hegerberg, scored the second for Lyon with a header to give them a comfortable 2-0 lead. 

The Former Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg also scored a hattrick in the 2019 final when they defeated this same Barca 4-1, extending her all-time Champions League goalscoring record to 59 goals in 60 games. 

10 minutes later, USWNT midfielder Catarina Macario added the third goal for Lyon, courtesy of lacklustre defending from the Spanish champions to extend their lead, and making her the first American to score in a Champions League final.

She and fellow Lyon starter Lindsey Horan became the fourth and fifth U.S. players to win the title (joining Ali Krieger, Gina Lewandowski and Alex Morgan).

READ MORE: Kylian Mbappe Will Remain At PSG. He Will Not Join Real Madrid!

After the third goal in the 33rd minutes, the Lyon players looked to have relaxed a bit, as the Catalan queens pulled one back through their talismanic attacker Alexia Putellas in the 41st minute as Barcelona headed into the break trailing at 3-1.

The Barça and Spanish star Putellas, is the competition’s leading goalscorer this season with 11 goals.

 

The second-half was more of the same as Lyon looked extremely compact defensively, showing much determination, with so much strength, and experience which helped them dominate the highly-entertaining encounter. 

Changes were made at interval by the Barcelona coach Giraldez bringing in Super Falcons star Asisat Oshoala in the 46th minute to replace Jennifer Hermoso who did not perform well in the game.

Seeing that things were neither good nor bad, the Galician coach later introduced Lieke Martens and Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic.

Barcelona further pressed forward and came close to scoring through a willing and erratic Oshoala and an electric Crnogorcevic.

The substitutions turned things around in such a way that they ended up dominating the statistics in terms of possession, chances on goal and shots attempted, although were unable to grind out a result.

🏆 #UWCL trophy lift No.8⃣ for Lyon!#UWCLfinal | @OLfeminin pic.twitter.com/Q5zmPhuNEb

— UEFA Women’s Champions League (@UWCL) May 22, 2022

It has been a monumental year for the women's football in Europe, investment has grown bigger as Seven of the eight Champions League quarterfinalists had to move their games to bigger stadiums. 

Barça’s triumphs and dominance on the field and in the stands cannot be erased, for breaking the world record Twice for attendance at a women’s soccer match with its 91,000-plus crowds at the Camp Nou.