Talking points: OL Lyonnes defeat a learning curve

STILL A LEARNING CURVE

Whatever way you look at it, this was still just our fifth ever Champions League game – excluding qualifiers – and record eight-time winners Lyon might just be the biggest visiting team that has set foot on the pitch in Leigh.

Maya Le Tissier noted beforehand in her matchday programme column: “It’s everything we work towards – testing ourselves against the best opposition there is, and Lyon are definitely one of them.”

The players in the squads reads like a who’s who of the women’s game. After an hour played, Jonatan Giraldez turned to Lyon bench and brought on esteemed forwards Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani, to replace the iconic Ada Hegerberg and the electric Chawinga.

But there was plenty that United did well, defending resolutely and, despite Lyon’s dominance of the stats, actually severely restricting the amount of genuine chances the visitors could create. Chawinga’s opener accounted for one of only two shots on target in the first 80 minutes. The toll on the Reds of playing a lot of the game without the ball showed in the closing stages.

Jayde Riviere, who was making her first professional start the last time a French team played in Leigh (PSG in October 2023), pulled off a potentially goal-saving block tackle on Hegerberg in the first half and made many other anticipatory interceptions, as well as getting forward to cross. It was also another battling display from Anna Sandberg on the other side, a player singled out for her elite ceiling after a Player of the Match performance against West Ham days earlier.