Women's football: OL and PSG will meet in the Premier League final

Olympique Lyonnais (OL) secured their spot in the final of the Premier League, the French women's football championship, by beating Dijon (4-1) on Sunday, May 11, in the playoff semifinals. The Fenottes will play for the title at home on Friday, May 16, against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), as they will in 2024 (OL won 2-1). The Parisians managed to recover from a turbulent week, which notably cost coach Fabrice Abriel his job, by winning 3-0 in the evening against Paris FC (PFC).

In front of a sparse crowd, contained in the front rows of a nevertheless enthusiastic Groupama Stadium, the Lyonnaises, the defending champions, first displayed their goal-scoring skills against their rivals of the day. Eugénie Le Sommer, the top scorer in the history of the Rhône club, added a ^302nd goal to her tally, opening the scoring with a powerful strike from the edge of the opposition's area (1-0, ^20th ), taking a disorganized Dijon defense by surprise.

This was followed by an offensive demonstration from the Fenottes, with a headed goal from the American Lindsey Heaps (2-0, 45th ^{+ 2} ), then an opportunistic opportunity, on the hour mark, seized by the Canadian defender Vanessa Gilles (3-0).

No false step for OL

The 2018 Ballon d'Or winner, Norway's Ada Hegerberg, sealed the victory (4-0, ^86th ), beating Dijon's Finnish goalkeeper, Katriina Talaslahti, one last time. The performance would have been perfect if it weren't for a moment of inattention at the end of the match, which saw Lyon's side caught out by Austria's Viktoria Pinther (4-1, ^89th ).

The victory was nonetheless undeniable, as the difference in skill was so pronounced. This was something Noémie Carage, the Burgundy club's central defender, accepted at halftime: "We knew it was going to be very difficult, but here we are against the best team in the league, if not in Europe."

Although OL were the overwhelming favorites for this match, the stakes were nonetheless high. One slip-up would have condemned them to a season without a trophy – something they haven't done since the 2020-2021 season. Beaten on penalties by Reims (0-0; 10 on penalties to 9) in the last 32 of the Coupe de France in mid-January, Lyon suffered a terrible disappointment in the Champions League, eliminated by Arsenal in the last four after an incredible underperformance at home in the second leg on April 27 (1-2; 1-4).

Because despite having finished largely at the top of the regular season (62 points, 10 more than PSG, ^2nd ) and unbeaten in the league, the players of coach Joe Montemurro must nevertheless, since the implementation of the playoffs by the French Federation (FFF) in 2024 , win two decisive duels in order to secure an ^18th league title.

PSG scores from the start

To do this, they will have to sideline the PSG players who avoided a deeper crisis at the club by eliminating their local rivals Paris FC at the Parc des Princes, a week after a confrontation in the Coupe de France final which had turned to the advantage of the latter.

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PSG coach Fabrice Abriel—criticized for his results, his management, and his strained relationships with senior players Grace Geyoro and Sakina Karchaoui—was suspended on Monday and temporarily replaced by Paulo Cesar, who previously coached the U19s. That same day, an altercation took place between sporting director Angelo Castellazzi and star striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto. The center-forward, whose contract is out and she's about to leave the club she's played for since she was 12, remained on the bench and under her hoodie throughout the match, watched by PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and France national team coach Laurent Bonadei.

For his second match in less than five days on the bench, Paulo César favored a three-man defense with a Karchaoui-Geyoro-Groenen midfield, who combined well, also taking advantage of defensive errors by Sandrine Soubeyrand's players.

From the start of the match, PSG striker Romée Leuchter opened the scoring by taking advantage of a major misunderstanding between goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie and defender Deja Davis, who had been struggling throughout the match (1-0, ^2nd ).

Paris FC and Clara Mateo, the league's top scorer who tried her luck several times without being decisive, never recovered from this catastrophic start. Symbolically, Sakina Karchaoui freed her teammates by doubling the lead with a well-crossed shot that beat the PFC goalkeeper, who was not well positioned enough (2-0, ^55th ). The French international, not called up for several matches by former coach Fabrice Abriel, celebrated her goal in the arms of her substitute. PSG attacking midfielder Korbin Albert increased the score at the very end of the match (3-0, 90th + 1).

This victory is "the result of a week of work in joy and good humor, [coach] Paulo brought back a little joy, we must thank him," said Elisa De Almeida. "The season has been complicated, we are not going to hide, it feels good," added the PSG player.

This elimination of Paris FC marks the end of the career of a legend of French women's football: after nearly 500 matches played, and twelve years as an international between 2007 and 2019 (163 caps, 58 goals), Gaëtane Thiney, 39, had announced that she would hang up her boots at the end of the season.

At the final whistle, the entire team rallied around the captain, moved to tears, who was once again one of the most prominent PFC players on Sunday evening.

"It was unreal at the end of the match, I'm going to have a very uncomfortable time because I love football," said the striker, whose last season was crowned by victory in the Coupe de France final on May 3, the only trophy of her career.

"I am privileged, I have had the good fortune to play 25 seasons at the highest level, to have played until the last second and to have performed well, you have to see the positive and tell yourself that new chapters will open for me" , added Gaëtane Thiney who says she does not yet know in which projects she will invest, "at the club or elsewhere" .