Wendy Renard’s 100th match in the Champions League, 9th European duel… The story of a rivalry in numbers

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Which of the Lyonnaises or the Parisiennes will represent France in the European final? Olympique Lyonnais receives PSG, Sunday April 24, for the account of the semi-final first leg of the Champions League (5 p.m.). A poster that looks like deja vu for the dthem behemoths of French women’s football who know each other by heart. If the Lyonnaises have long dominated European football with five consecutive titles between 2016 and 2020, the gap has since narrowed. Records in shambles, state of European confrontations, oppositions on the national scene, thehe greatest rivalry in French women’s football continues its soap opera.

8: confrontations between the two clubs in the Champions League

In 8 confrontations in C1, the women’s classic has turned 4 times to the advantage of Lyon, 2 to that of Paris, and ended in two draws. PSG and OL have already faced each other in the final in Cardiff in 2017, where the Lyonnaises won on penalties. This is the third time the two teams have met in the semi-finals. The first was in 2015-2016 (Lyon qualified in a round-trip match 7-0 and 1-0), the second in 2020 (victory in a dry match for OL 1-0). Last year, however, it was PSG who knocked out the five-time defending champions in the quarter-finals in Lyon (2-1). The end of a series of 31 matches without defeat on the European scene for Lyon, which had led to the departure of coach Jean-Luc Vasseur and his replacement by Sonia Bompastor.

100: Wendie Renard appearances in the Champions League

Wendie Renard, the captain of Les Fenottes, will play her 100th match in the Champions League in the clash of the semi-finals first leg. A total never before reached in the event according to UEFA and a real tour de force when you consider that OL have systematically started their European campaign in the round of 16 since the 2010s. At 31, the Martiniquaise with seven European trophies is revenge. Headed in the semi-final of the 2020 edition against the Parisiennes (1-0), Wendie Renard ended up unhappy a few months later by scoring, against his side, the goal that would eliminate OL in the quarter-finals of Champions League final (2-1, first leg: 0-1) against Parisiennes, of the 2021 edition.

0: Paris Saint-Germain crowned in the Champions League

“We know each other very, very well. In the world, there are no two teams that know each other as much as we do”said Marie-Antoinette Katoto, the PSG striker to AFP. The top scorer of D1 (17 goals), who has become the top scorer in the history of Paris Saint-Germain, dreams of offering a first European title to PSG a few weeks before the end of her contract which she still does not have. renewed. Stopped in the semi-finals last season, PSG are still running behind a first title in the Champions League, after to have been a finalist in 2015 and 2017. OL, for their part, hold the record for victories with seven consecrations.

1: league title won by PSG at the expense of Lyon

After 14 years of unchallenged reign of the fenottes (from 2007 to 2020), the Parisiennes won their first title of champion of France last season. A major feat, made possible by a season without any defeat in the league, against only one against Lyonnaises. A point of difference that made Parisiennes happy. This season, Lyon dominates Ligue 1 after 14 rounds with 55 points (5 points ahead of Paris). The fenottes flew over the first round of this duel against a PSG marked by the affair of the aggression of Kheira Hamraoui in November (6-1). Paris responded at the end of January by eliminating OL from the Coupe de France (3-0). Nothing is decided in this game of cat and mouse.

5: defector players for a fratricidal match

Former PSG player (2015-2016), Lindsey Horan joined OL this year. LAmerican, who has since won a world championship title in 2019 with the United States, will meet her former teammates on the lawn with whom she had discovered the Champions League. A symbolic match also very special for Perle Morroni. The 24-year-old left-back was Parisienne from 2015 to 2021, interspersed with a year in Barcelona, ​​before joining the banks of the Rhône this year.

The French international has taken the opposite path to her counterpart Sakina Karchaoui, who joined PSG this year in the same position. Return also under the Parisian colors, not without twists, of Kheira Hamraoui, after two seasons played in Lyon (2016-2018).

Finally the Cascarino sisters will be reunited on the ground, each of them under their colors: Lyon for Delphine, Paris for Estelle. Binoculars are not foreigners at Groupama Stadium. They both havestarted their career with the youth teams of Olympique Lyonnais. A fratricidal duel in the image of the links that unite OL and PSG.

27,000: the record number of spectators, and more?

Women’s football has continued its spectacular rise since the 2019 World Cup in France. The ticket for the last four, obtained in extra time by Ramona Bachmann (112th) against Bayern Munich, took place in front of more than 27,000 supporters at the Parc des Princes. A record for the women’s section of PSG. Before this first leg, Ada Hegerberg, the first footballer in Ballon d’Or history, called on Lyon supporters to mobilize to take over the OL stadium.

If not in the first leg, maybe in the second leg, Sunday, April 30, that a new attendance record could be broken.


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