Lyon thrash Bayern Munich to reach UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-finals

Kadidiatou Diani lit up the Parc Olympique Lyonnais as the hosts ran out 4-1 winners over Bayern Munich and secured their spot in the UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-finals.

The France international set up two and scored her side’s second to give Alexander Straus’ team a mountain to climb in the second half.

Klara Buhl’s stunning effort in the first period offered Bayern a way back into the tie, but Melchie Dumornay, Diani, Tabitha Chawinga and Ada Hegerberg all netted to ensure a dominant performance after the interval was rewarded with a 6-1 aggregate win.

Having secured a healthy 2-0 advantage from their first leg in Munich, the French side found themselves on the back foot in the opening stages as Bayern fired three blocked shots at Maria Luisa Grohs’ goal within the first 15 minutes.

The hosts soon exhibited their threat at the other end though, with Dumornay dragging a promising opportunity well wide.

Buhl brought Bayern to within one of parity in the 33rd minute, playing a neat one-two with teenager Momoko Tanikawa before rifling her low strike in off the far post from an impressively tight angle.

But 27 seconds after the half-time interval, Lyon had restored their two-goal advantage and Dumornay doubled her tally for the tie with a close-range header courtesy of a pinpoint Diani cross.

Diani was quickest to pounce on Carolin Simon’s loose touch to slam Lyon’s second on the night past Grohs.

And by the hour mark, the tie was put beyond the German side, with Diani involved once more as her low cross gave Chawinga a straightforward tap in.

From zero in the first half, Lyon manufactured five big chances in the second, and eventually added gloss to the proceedings with substitute Hegerberg poking a fourth under Grohs from Dumornay’s deft pass.

Lyon will face Arsenal in the competition’s final four, after The Gunners came back from a 2-0 first-leg deficit to beat Real Madrid 3-2 on aggregate.-tntsports

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