Lyon won a fifth consecutive Champions League title, making it seven in total, as they defeated Frauen-Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg in San Sebastian.

Lyon’s right side dynamics

Lyon had the better of proceedings in the first half, being more effective in possession than Wolfsburg and creating most of the breakthroughs. As a result they went in 2-0 up at half time thanks to goals from Le Sommer and Kumagai.

Lyon started in a 4-3-1-2, which showed some flexibility when they had possession, particularly on the right. A key part of this was the role of Gunnarsdottir as the right sided central midfielder.

Often in Lyon’s buildup phase, she would drop deeper in the right halfspace alongside center-backs Buchanan and Renard to assist in ball circulation from the first line. Kumagai would stay in front of them in the number six zone, and Marozsan a line higher at number ten. Majri on the other side mostly stuck to the left halfspace as well as occasionally drifting wider.

Gunnarsdottir’s movements were balanced by Bronze, so when Gunnarsdottir dropped deeper, Bronze would push up from fullback. This partnership worked the other way too, as Gunnarsdottir did not only drop back, she also made various forays with forward ones, sometimes diagonal runs towards the outside into the space in front of Bronze. In these cases, Bronze would then stay deeper.

A big attacking threat for Lyon was tricky dribbler Cascarino. Starting as the right sided striker, she looked to make runs into the channel behind Wolfsburg’s left back to receive the ball and isolate opponents 1v1. This was seen in the buildup to Lyon’s first goal and in another dangerous scene prior.

An example of Lyon’s right sided movements

Again Gunnarsdottir was important in these moves. Her diagonal runs into the wide areas helped move Wolfsburg’s cover on the left, opening up the channel for Cascarino to run into. Marozsan could do similar by drifting towards the right, as was again demonstrated in the case of Lyon’s first goal.

With Bronze, Gunnarsdottir and Cascarino all prominent from the right side, as well as Kumagai and Marozsan offering connections from the number six and ten positions respectively, Lyon created a threatening dynamic down the right side which Wolfsburg struggled to cope with.

Wolfsburg lack threat

Wolfsburg ended the first half without a shot on target as they struggled to generate attacking therat against the 4-3-1-2 mid-block of Lyon.

When they had the ball, Wolfsburg’s shape usually transitioned from their starting 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 shape to a back three. The right back Blasse would usually push up to provide width on the right as Huth moved inside. Meanwhile the left back Doorsoun (or later Janssen as she moved to left back due to Doorsoun getting injured and being replaced by centre-back Hendrich) remained deeper most of the time, forming a back three alongside Goessling an Janssen. Accordingly, Rolfo then held the width on the left.

In the centre, Engen was usually the deepest midfield other than rare occasions where she rotated with Popp or Harder. Popp played from the left halfspace and sometimes pushed up between the lines alongside Harder to essentially form a 3-5-2 in attack for Wolfsburg. Other times she played closer to Engen and left Harder to explore the space between lines alone. Harder was the number ten, and in some early scenes tended towards the right halfspace, however she had a lot of positional freedom and as the game wore on she increasingly preferred the left halfspace.

Wolfsburg’s possession scheme

Generally, it was hard for Wolfsburg to establish any kind of dynamic in possession in the first half. Progression through the centre was very difficult due to the compactness. Engen was almost never available in the number six zone due to presence of Marozsan, and options further ahead were naturally hard to reach.

There was space for the wide centre-backs to begin with, but the resulting scenes sometimes seemed as if Lyon were intentionally encouraging them to play into these wider areas, as pressure was applied when the ball was circulated in these areas for Wolfsburg. Lyon squeezed the wide areas well with the fullbacks and wide central midfielders teaming up to prevent progression, and the near side striker could also shift over to make backwards passes riskier.

A couple of the only bright moments Wolfsburg had in the first half came from the individual play of Harder dropping in front of the midfield line to receive the ball and subsequently outplaying her marker with her back to goal and being able to help progress the ball.

Harder helps Wolfsburg hit back

Given the scoreline, the second half saw Lyon slightly more conservative against the ball in many phases, and Wolfsburg attempting to press high after having spent much of the first half in a mid-block.

The higher pressing often saw Wolfsburg’s shape without the ball move into a 4-1-3-2 as the strikers both attacked the Lyon center-backs, and one of the central midfielders would step up to mark Kumagai.

Given Lyon’s strong central presence in their 4-3-1-2, players were able to find plenty of spaces behind the Wolfsburg midfield line which now had reduced cover in their attempt to press higher.

In general, there were quite a few transition moments where Lyon were able to expose the Wolfsburg defensive line due to Wolfsburg’s shape becoming increasingly stretched in their attempts to get back into the game.

Part of Wolfsburg’s problem in the first half had been that the back three in possession sometimes lacked a bit of aggression in their decision making as they elected not to drive forward with the ball. This contributed to their problems against pressing as they let the ball run along the backline until Lyon eventually trapped them in wide areas.

In the second half, this aspect seemed to improve somewhat, especially from Janssen on the left side, who made a couple of more positive movements with the ball to try and start attacks. Once Wolfsburg had forced Lyon deep and the ball was around the penalty box, she would also push further up in the left halfspace to try and counterpress ball losses in this area.

Once again probably the best threat for Wolfsburg was Harder. As mentioned earlier, she started to drift over to the left halfspace as the game went on, and this continued early in the second half.

Harder was able to influence attacks early in the second half by dropping into this zone to receive the ball, most notably in the buildup to Wolfsburg’s goal

She was able to find space outside of Gunnarsdottir due to the narrowness of Lyon’s midfield three. From there she could pick the ball up, turn and drive at opponents, which was part of the buildup to Wolfsburg’s goal just before the hour mark.

Lyon eventually prevail

Wolfsburg went on to make personnel changes, bring Oberdorf in place of Pajor, as Oberdorf slotted into midfield and Popp moved up front, and Huth was also replaced by Wolter.

Lyon continued to hold firm though, and crucially after the Wolfsburg goal they did not allow themselves to be pushed back too much, and still had attacks of their own, especially since they were reasonably strong playing out of the back against Wolfsburg’s increased pressing, and could find the spaces behind their opponents’ midfield line.

With a few minutes left, Lyon finally got the goal to fully secure the win. Le Sommer’s strike from the edge of the box after a cleared corner was met by Gunnarsdottir at the back post to divert the ball into the net, earning Lyon their Champions League win.