LYON: Kadidiatou Diani scored one goal and set up two more as Lyon outclassed Bayern Munich 4-1 in the second leg of their Women’s Champions League quarterfinal on Wednesday.
The French powerhouse needed a wake-up call before reaching the semifinals for the 13th time. Klara Bühl opened the scoring in the 33rd minute off the far post to claw a goal back for Bayern after losing the first leg 2-0 in Munich.
Lyon, the eight-time champion, emerged reinvigorated after the break and went on to wrap up a 6-1 victory on aggregate with Diani scoring and setting up goals for Melchie Dumornay and Tabitha Chawinga, who both scored in Munich last week.
Dumornay played in Ada Hegerberg to seal the rout with a flourish by shooting the ball between Bayern goalkeeper Maria-Luisa “Mala” Grohs’ legs in stoppage time.
Bayern will be left to rue defensive blunders for undermining their comeback hopes.
Diani was given two opportunities to cross the ball for Dumornay to equalize on the night, then Bayern star Giulia Gwinn inadvertently set up Diani to score in the 54th.
It was the third blow for Bayern in quick succession with forward Jovana Damnjanovic going off with an apparent rib injury.
The fourth blow came shortly afterward with Diana crossing for Chawinga to score Lyon’s third goal on the hour-mark. The French league champion missed further chances to score before Hegerberg made the last one count.
Lyon will face either Real Madrid or Arsenal in the semifinals. They were contesting the second leg of their quarterfinal in London later, with the Spanish team 2-0 up from the first leg in Madrid last week.
Arsenal made a promising start without scoring while Madrid began threatening toward the end of the first half in the second leg.
The other quarterfinal second legs are scheduled for Thursday, with defending champion Barcelona in a comfortable position after a 4-1 win over Wolfsburg in Germany, and Chelsea needing goals as they host Manchester City after losing the first leg 2-0.
Barcelona defeated Lyon in last year’s final.
Lyon outclass Bayern with 4-1 win to reach Women’s Champions League semifinals
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Lyon outclass Bayern with 4-1 win to reach Women’s Champions League semifinals
- Lyon, the eight-time champion, emerged reinvigorated after the break and went on to wrap up a 6-1 victory on aggregate
- Bayern will be left to rue defensive blunders for undermining their comeback hopes
India tune up for Super Eights with hard-fought win over the Dutch
- India beat minnows Netherlands by narrow 17 runs after scoring impressive 193-6 from 20 overs
- India will face a tough South African side on Sunday at same venue in Ahmedabad Super 8 clash
AHMEDABAD: Defending champions India beat a spirited Netherlands team by 17 runs on Wednesday ahead of their meeting with South Africa in the Super Eights of the T20 World Cup.
India posted 193-6 and then kept the Dutch down to 176-7 with spinner Varun Chakravarthy returning figures of 3-14 in Ahmedabad to stay unbeaten in their four matches in Group A.
But a tough test awaits the co-hosts at the same venue on Sunday when they face South Africa, who emerged top of a potentially tricky Group D that featured New Zealand and Afghanistan.
India finish top of their group ahead of arch-rivals Pakistan, but need to fix holes in their batting including the form of opener Abhishek Sharma, who fell for his third straight duck in the tournament.
“I mean, you can’t say that we have ticked almost all the boxes, but even if you win, you learn something out of it,” skipper Suryakumar Yadav said.
“And we have learned a few areas. We’ll go back to the rooms, have a day off tomorrow, and have a chat on that.”
Abhishek was bowled on the third ball by off-spinner Aryan Dutt after India elected to bat first at the world’s biggest cricket stadium.
India were teetering at 110-4 before Shivam Dube hit a counter-attacking 66 and put on a key stand of 76 with Hardik Pandya (30).
“This is a World Cup and the game gets difficult sometimes,” player of the match Dube, who also took two wickets, told reporters.
“It was a little tough on the wicket, but yeah, this is the situation I love to bat and I was enjoying.”
DUBE EFFECT
Several batters got starts but failed to capitalize as Ishan Kishan fell for 18, Tilak Varma made 31 and Suryakumar contributed 34.
But Dube kept calm and hit a few lusty blows including two sixes and a four off off-spinner Colin Ackermann, reaching his fifty off 25 balls.
He and Pandya ensured India’s innings finished strongly although both were dismissed in the final over at the 110,000-capacity stadium, which had a turnout of over 68,000 fans.
Dube, who hit four fours and six sixes in his 31-ball knock, was caught by substitute fielder Tim van der Gugten on the boundary rope, with Pandya picking out a fielder in the deep off the final delivery by Logan van Beek.
Dutt returned impressive figures of 2-19 from his four overs.
In reply, the Dutch openers started cautiously before Max O’Dowd fell bowled for 20 off Chakravarthy and Pandya dismissed Michael Levitt, for 24.
Bas de Leede and Ackermann attempted to put the chase back on track in their stand of 43 but Chakravarthy broke through with his mystery spin.
He sent back Ackermann, for 23, and then bowled Dutt on the next ball, before the hat-trick was avoided by skipper Scott Edwards.
The ever-increasing run rate forced the Dutch to take risks and in the process lose their wickets as De Leede (33) fell to Dube and Jasprit Bumrah took down Edwards.
Zach Lion-Cachet (26) and Noah Croes, who made an unbeaten 25, hit regular boundaries in a desperate attempt to pull off a miracle but India had runs to play with and, despite two dropped catches in the last over, saw out the match.
