“There is no friendship on the pitch,” says the Lyon forward Eugénie Le Sommer. Paris Saint-Germain’s full-back Sakina Karchaoui echoes those sentiments: “Before the match and after the match, yes, but during the match? No friends. We cut contact the days before the match, but once the match is over, we love to tease each other depending on the result.”
For PSG there has been scant opportunity to brag. They have barely dented Lyon’s Division 1 Feminine run of 16 titles, 2021 being the outlier when PSG finished top for the first time. In the Champions League PSG have twice been runners-up, to Frankfurt and Lyon, while Lyon have won the tournament a record eight times.
As the clubs’ Champions League semi-final first leg last Saturday ticked into its 80th minute, it had looked as if the perennial underdogs were in touching distance of a third final appearance, goals from Marie-Antoinette Katoto in either half having given them a 2-0 lead. This is Lyon, though, a team that understand what it takes to win the Champions League better than any other, a team that feel ownership over a trophy whose handles sweep round it like streamers. Kadidiatou Diani reduced the deficit, Haiti’s Melchie Dumornay equalised five minutes later and, 60 seconds later, Amel Majri gave the hosts a remarkable victory.
Le Sommer was unable to play, surgery required on a knee injury sustained in France’s 1-0 win over Sweden. “The surgery went well, I am fine, and I have already started rehabilitation,” she says. “My goal is to play at the Olympics.”
She watched though. “We weren’t realistic offensively in the first half and it was difficult to be losing 2-0 but the team was incredible mentally and confident to turn the situation around,” she says.
Karchaoui played the full game. “We played 80 minutes at a very high level, we led 2-0 and the match changed in a final 10 minutes of madness,” she says.
Le Sommer has been at Lyon for all eight European titles. She points to “a state of mind that has been built for a very long time through victories” and that is “transmitted naturally into new players who join the team”.
Karchaoui was one of those players, joining Lyon from Montpellier in 2020 for a season before making the switch to the French capital. At Lyon she won her so far only Champions League title and was taken under the wing by Le Sommer, who knew her from the national team. They are friends and have spoken about the impact of being teammates then rivals as a part of Uefa’s Rivalhood campaign.
“She is younger than me, so she was a little bit shy at first,” Le Sommer says, “and then she came to Lyon and we shared good times together, especially with the Champions League title in 2020. Now, it’s strange to see her in Paris. Because I played a lot with her, it’s easier to know what she will do but she is still a threat because she is a very good player, able to attack and defend.”
The respect is mutual. “She is the greatest striker in the history of French women’s football, an example for us all,” Karchaoui says of Le Sommer. “As soon as I arrived in the French team, we immediately established a good relationship. I have a lot of respect for her as a player. It’s her determination that sets her apart, that and the courage she has and how self-sacrificing she is for her teams.”
Lyon travel with a narrow lead but play against a team that know they can score and will have a strong home crowd on side. “It’s going to be a difficult and intense game,” says Le Sommer. “We have to be wary of this team because they have a lot of quality. There will also be a great atmosphere.”
Karchaoui knows the home crowd can have an impact. “There will be over 30,000 of them to support us – the Parisian public is the best in Europe,” she says. “It’s up to us to be up to the task too.” How they turn things around? “I’m not going to reveal the tactical secrets, but we will have to build on what we did for 80 minutes.”
The spoils are a place in the final against Chelsea or Barcelona, a step closer to a first title for PSG and a ninth for Lyon. Karchaoui describes it as the “holy grail”, and for Le Sommer, winning the competition doesn’t lose its sheen. “It was a dream for me to win it once, so to do it eight times, I have no words to describe it,” she says.
