Lyon pursue historic 100th UEFA Women’s Champions League victory – Forbes

Eight-time UEFA Women’s Champions League winners and defending champions Olympique Lyonnais are set to take another step forward on Wednesday by becoming the first team to record 100 wins in the competition.

Lyon welcome Swiss champions FC Zürich Frauen to the club’s main venue, the 59,186-capacity Groupama Stadium, after already winning the first leg in Switzerland 3-0 just two weeks ago .

Their record to date of 99 wins in the competition is 40 better than the second-best of 59 held by former champions Wolfsburg and Arsenal. Even if Lyon never won another UEFA Women’s Champions League game again, it would take more than three years for these teams to overtake the Lyon mark.

The Men’s Champions League has been around for 30 years now, so it’s no surprise that 14 teams have racked up over 100 wins in the competition, led by Real Madrid with 281 wins in 470 games.

Olympique Lyonnais will become the first women’s team in European history to achieve this record and are also set to claim their 100th Champions League victory ahead of their men’s side and become the first French side of either gender to record a century of victories in the competition.

The Lyonnais have played 148 Champions League games and won just 65, a winning percentage of 43.9. The women’s team have won 99 of their record 126 games in the competition so far, a winning percentage of 78.6.

The French side’s first win in the competition came on 9 August 2007, a 12–0 win in a first qualifying round match played in the inauspicious surroundings of Strumica in Macedonia against Slovak champions Slovan Duslo Šaľa . Their first goal was scored by Camille Abily who is currently working as an assistant coach to another former player and captain, head coach Sonia Bompastor. Remarkably, two of the current team, Amandine Henry and Wendie Renard also scored in this game 15 years ago and will feature in the game this week.

Lyon then lost in the semi-finals that year, but after the competition was renamed from the UEFA Women’s Cup to the UEFA Women’s Champions League at the turn of the decade, Lyon reached their first final in 2011, losing to German team Turbine Potsdam in a penalty shootout. They got their revenge by beating the same opposition 2-0 in the following year’s final to claim their first title, retaining it in 2012.

After three seasons without winning the competition, Lyon returned to the top in 2016 by beating Wolfsburg on penalties, the first of a staggering five successive European titles. When Spanish champions FC Barcelona won their maiden title in 2021 and swept it all away en route to the following year’s final, many thought Lyon’s hegemony was over. Yet the French side proved their doubters wrong in last season’s final in Turin to defeat Barcelona 3-1 and claim an eighth title.

Unsurprisingly, their number of wins is just one of many records they hold in the competition they’ve made their own, with eight titles over the past twelve seasons. They have played in most finals (10), semi-finals (12) and scored the most goals (445). Their captain Wendie Renard made history last season as the first player to make 100 appearances in the competition. On Wednesday, she is set to appear for a 106th time in Lyon’s record 127th game in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

While their 100th win looks likely this week, Lyon’s future in this season’s competition is far from certain. They started the group stage with a surprising 5-1 defeat at home to English side Arsenal before surrendering a half-time lead to Italian champions Juventus in Turin which currently leaves them third. of the mid-term standings with only the top two qualified for next year’s round of 16.

The top two, Arsenal and Juventus, will take points when they face off later in the evening in London. Even if Lyon claim the much-awaited victory this week, it’s almost certain they’ll need a 101st victory over one of the top two later this month to bring their defense of the trophy into the new year.