Women's Champions League semi-final preview
Thursday, April 20, 2017
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The semi-final first legs are played on Saturday and we bring you ten things you need to know about each of the ties as Manchester City face Lyon and Barcelona take on Paris Saint-Germain.
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- Semi-final ties (22 & 29 April)
Barcelona (ESP) v Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)
Manchester City (ENG) v Lyon (FRA, holders)
- Final: 1 June, Cardiff City Stadium
More info:
• Meet the semi-finalists
• Form guide
TV: Barça TV & BeIn Sports
• All 12,945 tickets have been snapped up, guaranteeing Barcelona's record crowd.
• Barcelona are the first Spanish club to reach the semi-finals, having fallen 1-0 on aggregate to Paris in the last eight a year ago.
• Paris are in their third semi-final – they won the first to finish as 2015 runners-up but lost to Lyon last season.
• Paris are missing defender Laura Georges through suspension for the first leg.
• Barcelona have won all six of their European matches this term while Paris had to recover from first-leg defeats in the round of 32 and quarter-finals.
• A cosmopolitan Paris squad includes Spanish internationals Verónica Boquete (once of Espanyol) and Irene Paredes. Boquete helped Frankfurt lift this title in 2015, beating Paris in the final.
• Barcelona's only foreign players are Danish defender Line Røddik Hansen and Brazilian midfielder Andressa Alves.
• Both teams' European top scorers this season have five goals: Barcelona's Jenni Hermoso and Cristiane of Paris.
• Paris are coached by Patrice Lair, who led Lyon to glory in 2011 and 2012. From those victorious Lyon squads, Paris now boast Shirley Cruz Traña as well as Georges.
• The second leg will be at the Parc des Princes, where Paris have twice won in past quarter-final ties.
TV: C8 (France), ESPN3 (US), Facebook.com/ManCityWomen (not France, US, UK)
• Manchester City, on their European debut, have knocked out two past finalists in Zvezda-2005 Perm and Fortuna Hjørrring.
• Lyon, winners in 2011, 2012 and 2016, are in a joint-record eighth semi-final and are also looking to equal FFC Frankfurt's high-water marks of six final appearances and four titles.
• Lyon eliminated last year's runners-up Wolfsburg in the quarter-finals, in a rematch of the 2016 decider.
• Sarah Bouhaddi, Wendie Renard, Camille Abily and Eugénie Le Sommer have all been part of Lyon's three past triumphs.
• Abily and Le Sommer are both on five European goals for the campaign while City's leader Lucy Bronze has three.
• This tie brings together the two sides' high-profile American winter signings: City's Carli Lloyd and Lyon's Alex Morgan.
• City midfielder Kosovare Asllani was previously at Paris, for whom she played in the 2015 final.
• Just one English team has figured in a European final to date: Arsenal, who lifted the 2007 UEFA Women's Cup.
• The following season, debutantes Lyon beat Arsenal in the quarter-finals and they also ousted the Gunners in the 2010/11 semis, their only previous UEFA competition encounters with English opposition.
• The return leg is at Stade de Lyon, where OL had a perfect European record until their 1-0 quarter-final second-leg reverse to Wolfsburg (they had won the first 2-0).