Chelsea FCW vs. Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, Women’s Champions League quarterfinal: Preview, team news, how to watch

After a most impressive 1-0 win in last week’s first leg, away, Chelsea have a tremendous opportunity to advance to the UEFA Women’s Champions League semifinals for the fourth time in our history. All we have to do is finish the job against the most successful team in that competition’s history, and the current defending champions.

No sweat!

We can expect that Lyon will not take last week’s defeat lying down, and will be looking to exact their revenge and spoil our night. We must not let that happen, and it sounds like we have plenty of confidence to make sure it doesn’t.

“We know what to expect. [We] know the threats, but we’ve worked hard over a long period of time to be ready for them. We want these situations, we want to be in this game tomorrow and we want to be in a position where we can impose ourselves and our game in our stadium the way that we want to.

“[We] are exactly where we want to be. We have a lot of experience too and I think it’s important for the team as a whole to demonstrate that, particularly in the right moments.”

-Emma Hayes; source: Chelsea FC

Date / Time: Thursday, March 30, 2023, 20.00 BST; 3pm EDT; 12:30am IST (next day)
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Ivana Martinčić (on pitch); Duje Strukan (VAR)
Forecast: Fairly mild but rainy

Streaming: DAZN (USA/UK) and on YouTube

Photo by Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Chelsea team news: Chelsea had a bit of a letdown over the weekend, losing 2-0 away to Manchester City to blow the WSL title race back wide open. It was a rare game without scoring (first in 24 in the league) and an even rarer defeat by a multi-goal margin (first in 89 in the league), but perhaps the focus was not quite right. No such excuses today of course.

Adding injury to that insult was Erin Cuthbert limping off with what looked like a knee injury, but she was back in training yesterday, so hopefully she’s good to go. Hayes claimed that she was fine, though Hayes also refused to rule out Millie Bright, who was forced off in the first leg with an injury and has been played or trained since.

Photo by Chris Ricco - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images

Lyon team news: In contrast, Lyon smacked Guingamp, 6-0 over the weekend in a match that also saw the return of Ada Hegerberg, who scored with her very first touch after coming off the bench. Amel Majri also made her first start since maternity leave.

Lyon aren’t scared of the magnitude of this task, and have no reason to believe they couldn’t pull it off.

“With Lyon we are used to difficult situations. OL have been performing at the highest level for years. We have the best track record in women’s football. [We] are still focused because we know that there is the possibility of qualifying.”

-Sonia Bompastor; source: UEFA

Previously: Guro Reiten scored an excellent goal with her weaker foot and Chelsea controlled large parts of the game to win 1-0 in the first leg, away.