Defending champions Arsenal were knocked out of the UEFA Women’s Champions League at the semi-final stage by a spirited Lyon.
The Gunners had won the first leg 2-1 at the Emirates – but the French side came out firing on Saturday afternoon in an incident-packed game.
Wendie Renard opened the scoring from the penalty spot at the second attempt. Daphne van Domselaar had saved her first effort but VAR spotted she had moved off her line.
Kadidiatou Diani scored the second before half-time – and though Alessia Russo may have thought she had forced extra time when she struck in the 75th minute, Jule Brand put paid to that dream with six minutes to go when she sealed a 3-1 win.
And Arsenal captain Kim Little admitted afterwards that her side felt frustrated to have let the first-leg lead slip – particularly bearing in mind that they were looking to win a second successive crown, having beaten Barcelona in the final in Lisbon last season.
“Ultimately, with the level we want to be at at this club and the players we have, we’ll always feel like we just missed out as much as we’re proud of all the journeys we’ve done.
“So we’ll learn from that and we’ll keep that inside to bring out those kind of frustrations, hopefully next year.”
Kim Little: We know how it feels to reach a Women’s Champions League final
Little told the club website: “We know how great it is and how it feels to get through to the final. We probably didn’t start the game the way we wanted to and [they] had the best first half, which allowed them to have a little bit of control this time.
“But we came back. We put up as best a fight we could in the second half. But then, obviously, small margins then they got the results.
“Proud of the team, proud of getting to this stage again.”
