Lyon vs Chelsea LIVE: Women’s Champions League team news and confirmed quarter-final line-ups

Emma Hayes on Lyon vs Chelsea: “Both teams will be working each other out, particularly in the first half. I think both ties will be very different.

“I don’t know what it’s going to look like, what I know is we’ve prepared the best we can and we’re absolutely ready.”

Emma Hayes’ team have had a brilliant European campaign so far. They won five of their six group stages matches with the other result being a 1-1 draw against Real Madrid.

The Blues topped Group A but unfortunately drew a difficult challenge in the knockout rounds against the current holders.

Lyon, the eight time Champions League winners, are the current holders in this competition having beaten Barcelona 3-1 in last season’s final.

Arsenal hammered Lyon 5-1 in the opening game of the group stages but lost the reverse fixture 1-0. Chelsea are above the Gunners in the WSL so could cause more problems for the French side tonight.

Chelsea midfielder Melanie Leupolz has nothing but praise for her club after the support they provided during her pregnancy, including hiring specialists for training.

Leupolz has made four appearances for Chelsea since giving birth in October and is aiming to play for Germany at this year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Players in the English Women’s Super League receive maternity cover as part of an agreement between the Football Association and Professional Footballers Association that came into effect from the 2022-23 season.

When Leupolz announced her pregnancy in early 2022 the deal was not effective, but the German international is grateful for the support she received from Chelsea and her coach Emma Hayes.

“Chelsea were doing much more than they had to do and that’s why I’m really thankful,” Leupolz told Sky Sports. “Emma (Hayes) has a child herself and she knows what’s important.

“We had a catch-up every two weeks, talked about my training programme, what I was doing in Germany and after birth, how I can get back to my strength and fitness. Other clubs should take Chelsea as an idol and ask questions about how we did it because, in my experience, they were super.”

Emma Hayes doubts there is much to learn from Arsenal’s 5-1 demolition job of Lyon earlier this season ahead of Chelsea’s clash with the European champions.

The Gunners laid down a marker in the Champions League last October with a stunning win over a side that have won the competition in six of the last seven seasons, including last year.

Asked whether there was anything Chelsea could take from Arsenal’s win earlier in the season, Hayes replied: “It was a phenomenal performance from Arsenal, but we also saw Lyon go to Arsenal and win 1-0.

“We know that Lyon are a top side, earlier on in the season they were missing a lot of players, that’s not the case now, they have a lot of their experienced players back.

“There are certainly things from Arsenal’s performance that night that reminded us of some of the things that we repeated in the pre-season game against Lyon.

“But I think this is a much different game and Lyon are at a much different stage than they were earlier on in the season.”

The big news for Lyon is Ada Hegerberg returns to the bench for the defending champions.

Lyon: Endler, Carpenter, Gilles, Renard, Morroni, Horan, Egurrola, Marozsan, Cascarino, Le Sommer, Dabritz

Subs: Bacha, Majri, Hegerberg, van de Donk, Sombath, Cayman, Bruun, Benyahia, Becho, Malard, Belhadj

So Erin Cuthbert starts for Chelsea despite missing the last three matches due to injury. The Scotland international comes in for Jessie Fleming, with the Blues pretty much as expected elsewhere – although Magdalena Eriksson is on the bench. Kadeisha Buchanan starts against her former side.

Chelsea: Berger, Perisset, Kadeisha Buchanan, Bright, Carter, Leupolz, Ingle, James, Cuthbert, Reiten, Kerr

Subs: Musovic, Eriksson, Fleming, Mjelde, Johanna Kaneryd, Charles, Abdullina, Cankovic, Orman

Lyon: Endler, Carpenter, Gilles, Renard, Morroni, Horan, Egurrola, Marozsan, Cascarino, Le Sommer, Dabritz

Chelsea: Berger, Perisset, Kadeisha Buchanan, Bright, Carter, Leupolz, Ingle, James, Cuthbert, Reiten, Kerr

Salma Paralluelo struck a fine winner as Barcelona defeated Roma 1-0 in in front of a record-breaking crowd on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old Paralluelo’s left-footed strike from just outside the area in the 34th minute puts Barcelona a step away from the final four as the teams head into the second leg at Camp Nou next week.

Attendance at Stadio Olimpico was 39,454 — a record for women’s football in Italy. Roma goalkeeper Camelia Ceasar limited the damage for the hosts by making several key saves, including denying Caroline Graham Hansen from close range in the first half.

Arsenal produced a battling performance at the Allianz Arena as they went down to a 1-0 defeat in their Women’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich.

Lea Schuller’s first-half header saw Bayern home, yet Arsenal will fancy their chances of turning the tie around in next week’s return.

They created a number of opportunities, being denied by goal-line clearances and the woodwork as Bayern ultimately did enough to record a 13th-successive victory in all competitions this season.

Arsenal, though, showed more than enough to suggest that a semi-final appearance for the first time since 2013 was not beyond them.