VfL Wolfsburg knocked out Lieke Martens’ Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals of the Women’s Champions League on Thursday. With three Orange internationals in the starting line-up, the German side held the French leaders 1-1 and that was enough after last week’s 0-1 win in Paris. Later in the evening, Olympique Lyonnais, with Daniel van de Donk and Damaris Egurola in the squad, crashed out of the competition.
In Paris, Dominik Janssen was crowned match winner and earned a starting place in his return to Wolfsburg, where he won the Champions League in 2013 and 2014. Lynn Wilms and Jill Roord also featured, while Jackie Cronen was absent from PSG due to injury. Martens played on and was substituted after 54 minutes.
German player Alexandra Popp made it 1-0 to Wolfsburg in the twentieth minute. Kadidiatou Diani signed for the equalizer ten minutes later, but ambitious PSG got nothing further.
Earlier this week, Janssen, Roord, Wilms and Martens were included in the Orange squad for exhibition games against Germany (April 7) and Poland (April 11). Because of his injury, Groenen has been ruled out of next summer’s World Cup qualifiers in Australia and New Zealand.
Resterend speelschema CL Vrouwen
- 22/23 april: Wolfsburg-Arsenal
- 22/23 april: Chelsea-FC Barcelona
- 29/30 april: Arsenal-Wolfsburg
- 29/30 april: FC Barcelona-Chelsea
- 3 juni: Finale
Wolfsburg meets Barcelona
Wolfsburg’s opponents in the semi-finals are Arsenal, who knocked out Bayern Munich on Wednesday. Vivian Miedema was injured with the Londoners. He also missed the World Cup due to this.
FC Barcelona qualified for the semi-finals on Wednesday with a loss to AS Roma. The Spanish club will face Chelsea in the next round, which eliminated Olympique Lyonnais. The French have won the Champions League six times in the last seven seasons, but this year they are missing out on an overall win.
Lyon looked set to go into the semi-finals in extra time on Thursday. A 0-2 loss to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge followed a 0-1 defeat a week earlier. Vanessa Gilles (77th minute) and Sarah Tapritz (110th minute) scored for Lyon. In the eighth minute of the second extra time, Chelsea made it 1-2 through Maren Mjelde, forcing a penalty shootout. Chelsea won 4-3.
Van de Donk came on for Lyon in the 106th minute and Egurola came off in the 56th minute. Both internationals like Janssen, Roord, Wilms and Martens have been called up to the Orange.
The Champions League Women’s Final, which had its first edition in the 2001/2002 season, will be held this year on June 3 at the Philips Stadium. This is the first time that the final battle has been held in the Netherlands.
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