Arsenal into Women’s Champions League final with stunning second-leg win in Lyon

Arsenal will take on holders Barcelona in the Women’s Champions League final after a superb 4-1 victory at Lyon saw them triumph 5-3 over the eight-time winners on aggregate.

The Gunners had made it into the last four by recovering from a 2-0 defeat in their quarter-final first leg at Real Madrid to win the second 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium.

And Renee Slegers’ side once again turned things around as they ruthlessly punished thoroughly out-of-sorts Lyon at Groupama Stadium, eight days on from the French team’s 2-1 victory in north London.

The tie was level after five minutes via a Christiane Endler own goal, Mariona Caldentey put Arsenal in front with a stunning strike in first-half stoppage time, and they then made the most of Lyon sloppiness after the break as Alessia Russo and Caitlin Foord added finishes.

Substitute Melchie Dumornay pulled a goal back for the hosts in the 81st minute but Lyon were unable to save themselves on an utterly miserable occasion for their boss Joe Montemurro against his former employers.

Through to the final for a second time, 18 years on from winning the competition when it was known as the UEFA Women’s Cup, Arsenal will face in Lisbon next month a Barcelona outfit who completed an 8-2 aggregate thrashing of Chelsea earlier on Sunday.

Arsenal’s positive start saw Kim Little’s early shot turned behind by Lyon goalkeeper Endler.

And when Chloe Kelly delivered the resulting corner, both Wendie Renard and Endler failed to get to it, their team-mate Damaris Egurrola got a touch and the ball ended up going in off the goalkeeper’s back to bring things level on aggregate.

Soon after, a misjudgement by Endler’s opposite number Daphne van Domselaar led to a chance for Renard, but she fired over.

Arsenal returned to the front foot, with Foord seeing a strike saved, Russo heading wide and Caldentey shooting too high, before Selma Bacha and Ellie Carpenter sent attempts over at the other end.

The Gunners then moved ahead in the tie for the first time thanks to a moment of magic from Caldentey, who collected Russo’s lay-off to curl into the top corner from the edge of the area a minute into time added on at the end of the first half.

Lyon threatened just before the interval when Egurrola’s header was saved by Van Domselaar, then shot themselves in the foot in the opening minute of the second half as they lost possession in their own half, the ball was worked to Russo and she slotted in to extend Arsenal’s lead.

And after Russo saw a further shot saved and Van Domselaar denied Ada Hegerberg, Lyon were then made to pay for another mistake just past the hour mark as Vanessa Gilles slipped in the home box, Foord claimed the ball from her and rifled into the net.

While the tie looked as good as over, Lyon subsequently managed to reduce the deficit with around 10 minutes of normal time remaining as Dumornay drilled past Van Domselaar, and fellow substitute Dzsenifer Marozsan passed up a decent opportunity by heading over soon after.

As Lyon continued to make a late push, there was a VAR check in stoppage time for a potential penalty for handball after the ball struck Beth Mead, but nothing was given and moments later Arsenal’s progress was confirmed.