Lyon vs Benfica Women's Champions League preview: Where to watch, line-ups
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
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When is it? How can you watch it? What are the line-ups? All you need to know about the UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final second leg between Lyon and Benfica.
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Lyon and Benfica meet in the UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final second leg on Wednesday 27 March at OL Stadium.
Lyon vs Benfica at a glance
When: Wednesday 27 March (18:45 CET kick-off)
Where: OL Stadium, Décines
What: UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final first leg
How to follow and watch: Build-up and a live stream from DAZN can be found here
Semi-finals: Winners vs Häcken or Paris Saint-Germain (20/21 & 27/28 April; Lyon or Benfica at home in first leg)
What do you need to know
After trailing at half-time in the first leg thanks to an Andreia Faria goal, Delphine Cascarino and Sara Däbritz turned the game in Lisbon to give Lyon a 2-1 advantage. It was still another decent display by Benfica, who were making history just by stepping on to the pitch as the first Portuguese quarter-finalists. Letícia Almeida is out and Nycole Raysla also missed Tuesday's training session.
Lyon, with eight titles to their name, are of course no strangers to this stage, making a record-equalling 15th quarter-final appearance and having won 12 of their previous 14 last-eight ties. However, two of those defeats came in the last three seasons and the first might give Benfica hope.
In 2020/21 Lyon won 1-0 away to Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg only to then lose 2-1 at home and fall on away goals. Last season OL lost their first leg 1-0 at home to Chelsea, forced extra time at Stamford Bridge and then scored again, only to concede at the death and depart on penalties. Ada Hegerberg remains out with Liana Joseph also injured but Wendie Renard made her first appearance of 2024 from the bench against LOSC Lille on Saturday.
Form guide
Lyon
Last six games: WWWLWW
Last match: LOSC Lille 0-7 Lyon, 23/03, league
Where they stand: 1st in D1 Féminine
Benfica
Last six games: WLDWWW
Last match: Benfica 4-1 Braga, 23/03, league
Where they stand: 1st in Campeonato Nacional Feminino, Portuguese Cup semi-finals
Where to watch
Streaming platform DAZN is removing its paywall to the largest portfolio of women's football worldwide, including the UEFA Women's Champions League. This will drive audience growth and provide a new global home for women's football, offering greater access to games, content and the international women's football community.
Selected matches are also streamed free on DAZN's YouTube channel throughout the world with the exception of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) – where rights include clips and highlights – and China and its territories.
The YouTube stream will also be embedded in the UEFA.com MatchCentres and on UEFA.tv for selected UEFA Women's Champions League games (including Lyon vs Benfica), with highlights to follow at midnight CET.
Starting line-ups
Lyon: Endler; Carpenter, Mbock Bathy, Gilles, Bacha; Van de Donk, Horan, Däbritz; Diani, Le Sommer, Cascarino
Misses next match if booked: Bacha
Benfica: Pauels; Araujo, Carole Costa, Ucheibe; Lucia Alves, Gasper, Andreia Faria, Catarina Amado; Alidou, Davidson, Kika Nazareth
Misses next match if booked: Lucia Alves, Ucheibe
View from the camps
Sonia Bompastor, Lyon coach: "We have a match to play, we are not yet qualified. Benfica will come here without fear and will have the desire to bring us down. We have confidence and strength.
"We have a very talented team and we are at home but we will have to attack this match with the desire to put in a good performance to obtain a result. I am convinced that we will show a better face than in the first leg.”
Filipa Patão, Benfica coach: "Impossible things don't exist in football and even if they did, I usually say that they are not for us. We have demonstrated several times, over the years, that we like so-called impossible things. They are only impossible until someone makes them possible and until we manage to change the page of history.
"If we can always score a goal, we have to be competent in not conceding any and always scoring more. Regardless of our opponents' strength, we also have our strength, we are also a team with quality and we have nothing to lose. The truth is this: we have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Let's go to Lyon with that spirit."
Christiane Endler, Lyon goalkeeper: "Wendie [Renard]’s presence with her leadership is very important to us. We hope to have her with us to bring her experience and give her advice. She talks a lot, especially in more difficult times. His role is very important.
"For us players it is important to have the fans behind us. We saw it in Lisbon where there were a lot of supporters too. I hope they will enjoy seeing us play good football and that we will give them a great end to the season."
Marie Alidou, Benfica forward: “We like this type of pressure and games like this. We have already shown in this competition and in others that we like pressure. In fact, it's even a privilege. Even though it's an away game, we're ready to go all out and it doesn't matter where we play."
Where is the 2024 UEFA Women's Champions League final being played?
San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao will stage the 2024 Women's Champions League final at 18:00 CET on Saturday 25 May.
The 50,000-plus capacity home of Bilbao's Athletic Club was built on the site of the old San Mamés, replacing the 100-year-old arena of the same name in 2013. Athletic Club women's team have played several games in the new stadium, attracting 48,121 fans for a 2019 cup tie against Atlético de Madrid, at the time a Spanish record.