Chelsea into WCL semi-finals after dramatic penalty win against Lyon

Battling, bruised and almost beaten. The goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger was the hero, seven months after announcing the return of her thyroid cancer and ongoing treatment, making two saves in the penalty shootout as Chelsea booked a place in the Champions League semi-finals at the expense of the European champions, Lyon.

The Blues had pulled the aggregate score with the French side level with the last kick in extra time. It had seemed that Sara Däbritz’s extra-time strike would be enough to put the eight-time winners Lyon into the final four after Vanessa Gilles’s second-half goal cancelled out the slender advantage Guro Reiten’s strike had given Chelsea in the first leg. But Lauren James was deemed to have been felled by Vicki Becho after a VAR check and Maren Mjelde’s penalty levelled the score.

It was the final action of the game and, after four penalties were scored in the shootout, Berger saved Wendie Renard’s spotkick only for Lauren James’s effort to be also pushed away by Christiane Endler. It came down to the final kick and Berger saved Lindsey Horan’s effort to give Chelsea a 4-3 shootout victory, set up a semi-final with Barcelona and send the rapt home crowd into ecstasy, disbelief spilling from every pore.

“She’s someone who really thrives in big moments,” said Chelsea’s manager, Emma Hayes, of Berger. “She’s probably the best pen-saving goalkeeper I’ve worked with. Every day everyone hates going up against her.”

Hayes had said prior to the match that her team relished the prospect of being “in a position where we can impose ourselves in our stadium the way that we want to”.

Unfortunately, the reigning European champions had other ideas. It was a blistering start from the visiting side, who went in search of