UWCL: Arsenal vs Lyon Preview

Arsenal will host Olympique Lyonnais this bank holiday weekend as both teams fight for a spot in the final of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

RECENT PERFORMANCES:

In their last six performances, Arsenal have won five games and lost one. The loss came against Real Madrid away in the first leg of the quarter finals. With work to do, the second leg was played at the Emirates Stadium, where the Gunners came from behind to win 3-2 on aggregate, to put themselves through to the semi-finals. Their most recent win was a huge 5-1 victory against Leicester City, extending their streak of scoring 4+ goals in consecutive home league games.

In their last six matches, Lyon have won five and drawn one. Their draw was 2-2 coming against Paris FC at home, Amel Majri and Damaris Egurrola getting their names on the scoresheet. To make the semi-finals, Lyon played Bayern Munich winning 6-1 on aggregate. They currently sit 1^st in the Premiere League, eight points ahead of Paris Saint-Germain.

STAND OUT PLAYERS:

Lyon’s Melchie Dumornay will be one to watch in this clash. Having scored 26 goals in 35 appearances in her two seasons at Lyon, Dumonray will be looking to slot a few past the Arsenal defence. In 2022, she was awarded Goal’s NXGN award for best teenage player in the world. While playing for Haiti, she has progressed through the youth levels and most notably won the Golden Ball at the CONCACAF Women’s U-17 Championship. She made her debut for the senior team in 2020 during the Olympic Qualifiers, and has since been named Best Young Player at the CONCACAF Championships in 2022 and included in the tournaments Best XI.

Arsenal’s Beth Mead will be a name everyone looks for in the starting lineup tomorrow after she scored a hattrick against the visitors in their last home Champions League meeting. She currently holds the title for all-time most assists in the WSL, and in 2015, became the youngest WSL Golden Boot winner at age 20. During her time at Arsenal, she has helped them to lift the Super League trophy in 2018/19 and the League Cup in 2022/23 and 2023/24, as well as being FA Cup runners up in 2017/18 and 2020/21. Mead currently has 219 appearances for Arsenal with 78 goals. Mead has represented England through the youth age groups and made her senior team debut in 2018 and has 65 caps with 34 goals. She was part of the SheBelieves Cup winning squad in 2019, Euro winning squad in 2022 and the Arnold Clark Cup winning squad in 2022.  Although Mead has many individual accolades, her most notable award was the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2022, where she became the first female footballer to win the award. She also came second in the Ballon D’or in 2021/22, just points behind Spain’s Alexia Putellas.

TEAMS AND PREDICTED LINE UPS:

Alessia Russo and Chloe Kelly, for Arsenal, were both back in training on matchday -1, Kelly started with a few individual warm ups before joining in with the full team training. While both were in training, they may not be fit to start, giving the Gunners useful attacking options later on in the game.

Whilst Wendie Renard has not been seen in matchday -1 training, it is unclear as to whether she is injured.

ARSENAL: Zinsberger, Fox, Williamson, Catley, McCabe, Little, Maanum, Mariona, Mead, Foord Blackstenius

LYON: Endler, Carpenter, Gilles, Renard, Bacha, Marozsan, Heaps, Egurrola, Diani, Dumornay, Chawinga

The game kicks off on Saturday 19^th April at 12:30pm BST, and can be streamed live on DAZN or TNT Sports in the UK.