Olympique Lyonnais Women cruised to a 3-0 victory in the second match of the ICC Women's Tournament over Manchester City Women thanks to a brace and assist from Eugénie Le Sommer. Lyon is looking to win their fourth consecutive UEFA Women's Champions League title at the end of this season, and the team is widely regarded as the best women's club side in the world.
Three quick goals started the match
The game started off like a dream for Lyon. It took less than four full minutes for a cross to find the head of Le Sommer, who expertly placed the ball into the right side of goal past the outstretched arms of Karen Bardsley, the Man City goalkeeper. Lyon kept the pressure on, and it was Le Sommer again in the 14th minute putting on an absolute show. She picked the pocket of the Manchester defender right at the top of the box and then proceeded to calmly dribble around Bardsley who had to watch the French forward walk the ball into her net while laying on the ground. Le Sommer wasn't done yet. In the 17th minute, she sent a perfect pass to the feet of Ada Hegerberg, who scored the third and final goal of the match. The game might not have been officially over, but it sure felt like it was.
The last seventy-plus minutes of the match alternated between Manchester City gaining possession and Lyon falling back and preventing a shot and Lyon just outright bludgeoning Man City. City just never got rolling in this match, but it should be a good wake up call for the team. In the Champions League semifinals in May, Manchester City drew Lyon 0-0 before losing 1-0 as they were eliminated from the competition.
Words from both coaches
Lyon (Reynald Pedros - through a translator): "Everything went right. For the first game after just a week of training, he was very surprised and pleased with the state of mind on the field and the physical shape of his players. They felt that they could hurt physically at some points during the game, so they worked hard to make sure that, tactically, they were set. And everything went well because they scored very quickly and that made things much easier for them. As the game went on they got more tired it was critical to keep the ball moving so that PSG would be chasing the game rather than controlling the game, and obviously, that made it easier for them to keep possession."
Manchester City (Nick Cushing): "Listen, they're a very, very good team. They've won three Champions Leagues on the run because they're a very good team, so we expected it to be difficult. I thought the first goal killed us a little bit. I think it's a crazy goal. I don't understand it. In England, in Europe, that is not the rule, so I don't understand it. So to go one nil down early, I think it hurt us. And with all of the travel and the heat, I think we needed a positive start and that was a little bit unfair, but they're a very good team. I thought we grew into the game and once we got into it we managed to impose ourself on the game more. You know, we didn't manage to score and, of course, they scored three, so the result is what it is."