PARIS
\nChelsea reached the semi-finals of the Women\u2019s Champions League on Wednesday despite a 1-1 draw at home to Ajax, while Lyon also progressed after brushing aside Benfica in France.
\nMayra Ramirez put Chelsea into a first-half lead on her European club debut before Chasity Grant equalised for Ajax in the second half.
\nChelsea prevailed 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win in the first leg in Amsterdam. \u201cAjax did really well, they came out as we expected them to,\u201d said Chelsea midfielder Erin Cuthbert.
\n\u201cSmall margins in football, we could have put a little bit more away, give ourselves a bit more breathing room, but the job was really done in the first leg.\u201d
\nAjax nearly took the lead in the opening 20 minutes when goalkeeper Zecira Musovic had her clearance charged down by Tiny Hoekstra, but the ball rolled against the post and went agonisingly wide.
\nJust after the half-hour mark, Ramirez opened her Champions League account with a composed finish after being set free by Guro Reiten.
\nNow four goals to the good, Emma Hayes\u2019 side looked set to cruise into the final four.
\nGrant put a dampener on the night for Chelsea when she ran on to Hoekstra\u2019s through ball and her slightly scuffed finish squirmed its way through Musovic.
\nWith the score level on the night, Chelsea\u2019s aggregate lead was insurmountable for Ajax although Musovic did redeem herself in the last 10 minutes when she made excellent fingertip saves to deny Romee Leuchter and then Danique Tolhoek.
\nEarlier, braces from Delphine Cascarino and Kadidiatou Diani gave eight-times titleholders Lyon a 4-1 victory at the Groupama Stadium to claim the tie 6-2 on aggregate.
\nMarie-Yasmine Alidou equalised minutes after Cascarino\u2019s opener at the end of the first half, but the 27-year-old hit a second shortly after half-time before two injury-time Diani goals gave Lyon a comfortable victory.
\n\u201cThere was a lot to be pleased about,\u201d Lyon coach Sonia Bompastor toldo the club\u2019s channel, OLPLAY. \u201cThe comeback at half-time was beautiful and hurt the Portuguese mentally, but we had to be more clinical in the first half.\u201d
\nLyon created several good early chances but failed to find a way past Lena Pauels in the Benfica goal until the 43rd minute.
\nCascarino gave Lyon a two-goal buffer on aggregate when Eugenie Le Sommer chased down an underhit backpass, won her challenge with Pauels and then had the presence of mind to lay the ball back to the French international, who duly finished with a delightful chip over the stranded \u2018keeper and two retreating defenders.
\nBut Benfica struck back instantly to reduce the deficit to one goal when Alidou bundled home Lucia Alves\u2019 cross, following a sublime defence-splitting pass from deep by Kika Nazareth.
\nLyon made two changes at half-time, and the move soon paid off when Cascarino doubled up with a fine individual effort six minutes into the second half.
\nPicking the ball up in midfield, she drove forward before unleashing a powerful shot from outside the area.
\nOne minute into added-time, Diani tucked away Lindsey Horan\u2019s knockdown in the box to cement Lyon\u2019s spot in the semi-finals.
\nThe margin of victory then became even greater five minutes later when Diani miscontrolled the ball and Catarina Amado\u2019s clearance actually glanced off the French forward and into the net.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS Chelsea reached the semi-finals of the Women\u2019s Champions League on Wednesday despite a 1-1 draw at home to Ajax, while Lyon also progressed after brushing aside Benfica in France. Mayra Ramirez put Chelsea into a first-half lead on her European club debut before Chasity Grant equalised for Ajax in the second half. Chelsea prevailed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":62707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62709,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62695\/revisions\/62709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}