Battling, bruised and almost beaten. The goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger was the hero, seven months after announcing the return of her thyroid cancer and ongoing treatment, making two saves in the penalty shootout as Chelsea booked a place in the Champions League semi-finals at the expense of the European champions, Lyon.
The Blues had pulled the aggregate score with the French side level with the last kick in extra time. It had seemed that Sara Däbritz’s extra-time strike would be enough to put the eight-time winners Lyon into the final four after Vanessa Gilles’s second-half goal cancelled out the slender advantage Guro Reiten’s strike had given Chelsea in the first leg. But Lauren James was deemed to have been felled by Vicki Becho after a VAR check and Maren Mjelde’s penalty levelled the score.
