Lyon Aim For European Record As Opponents Brondby Ask Fans For Financial Help

The UEFA Women’s Champions League resumes this week with the champions for the past five seasons Olympique Lyonnais on the verge of setting another record over the course of the Round of 16. Meanwhile, their Danish opponents admitted yesterday they are struggling to meet the costs of playing the tie.

If Lyon can avoid defeat in their two matches against Brøndby Women over the course of the next week they will equal and break their own all-time European record of 29 undefeated matches set between 2010 and 2013.

Lyon’s last defeat in a European club competition match came on home soil against English side Manchester City in April 2017. Carli Lloyd scored the only goal in a 1-0 semi-final second leg victory but Lyon nevertheless progressed to the final having won the first leg 3-1 in Manchester.

Since that loss, the French side are undefeated in 28 successive matches, winning 25 and drawing three. Since drawing in the 2019 semi-final second leg away to Chelsea, Lyon have recorded ten successive victories going into this week’s tie with Brøndby.

If they can avoid defeat in Thursday’s first leg match at the Groupama Stadium, they will equal the record they set inbetween losing a quarter-final second leg to Torres of Italy in March 2010 and defeat in the 2013 Final to VfL Wolfsburg. During that period they did lose the 2010 final on a penalty shoot-out only after their match with Turbine Potsdam finished in a scoreless draw. That run of 29 undefeated matches remains an all-time European club record eclipsing the men’s Champions League record of 25 matches without defeat set by Manchester United between May 2007 and May 2009.

Anyone believing that such an undefeated sequence is the logical consequence of winning five Champions League titles in succession should consider that the great Real Madrid men’s team which won the first five European Cup titles between 1956 and 1960 lost six matches during that period and never went through an entire season undefeated. The two-leg format of European club competition means remaining unbeaten is not a necessary requirement of progression in the competition making Lyon’s accomplishments all the more remarkable.

Lyon’s only competitive defeats in that period have come against their national rivals, Paris Saint-Germain who defeated them in the 2018 French Cup Final and also ended their staggering 79-game unbeaten run in the French league last November. Lyon therefore go into the Champions League unusually trailing Paris Saint-Germain in the league standings and host their great rivals in the return league fixture immediately after their tie against Brøndby on March 13.

Speaking to OLTV last week, Australian defender Ellie Carpenter admitted the Lyon players are after revenge. “As soon as we lost them to last year, I think all eyes were on this match in March. We know what’s at stake and we know we need to win. I think we all just want to play that game. Definitely, there will be some revenge”.

Lyon will go into their upcoming matches strengthened by the addition of new United States international Catarina Macario, who returned to France before the end of last month’s She Believes Cup in order to complete her government-mandated seven-day quarantine so she can be prepared and eligible to make her Champions League debut this week. Macario is aiming to follow in Alex Morgan’s footsteps to become only the second United States’ player to win the coveted European title with the French champions.

While accepting that the coming weeks could define Lyon’s season, Carpenter reveals the players are mentally and physically prepared for the challenges ahead. “I think March is a big month for us”, she said. “We have the Champions League, French Cup and obviously the match against Paris Saint-Germain. I think we’re ready for it, I’m ready, and as a team we’re ready as well”.

“We know every game we have to win and we want to win. I think it’s just installed in you mentally. When we go on to the pitch together, we just know we’re going to win this game. We just focus on that, I think it’s so important and such a special thing that Lyon has, is that winning mentality”.

With no spectators permitted to attend either leg of the tie and therefore deprived of the revenue generated by paying spectators, Danish team Brøndby are struggling to meet the additional costs of participating in Europe created by the need to adhere to Covid-19 protocols. As business manager Michael Espersen explained “when we usually travel to Champions League matches, we stay in double rooms. But now UEFA has dictated that one should stay in single rooms. That makes that part twice as expensive. They have also asked us to fly by chartered aircraft rather than fly on scheduled flights. This week we could normally fly to Lyon for around 75,000 DKK ($12,183), but it now costs 265,000 DKK ($43,045)”.

To cover the increased costs, the club have asked fans to buy virtual “support tickets” for the second leg next week in Denmark. Priced at 50 DKK each ($8), they hope to sell as many tickets as they would have expected for a sell-out match, 8,500. This would raise 425,000 DKK ($69,033) for the women’s team amounting to almost 25% of their annual 2 million DKK ($324,864) budget.

“It is ambitious” admitted Espersen, “and it should be, but everything in this context will help us. It just shows what a club it is. There is a huge support and loyalty for the club. You are surprised time and time again. The fans surpass themselves time and time again”.