Sam Kerr's Chelsea are through to the semifinals of the UEFA Women's Champions League after a dramatic victory over Ellie Carpenter's Olympique Lyonnais, coming from behind to score an equaliser in the 128th minute before winning 4-3 on penalties.
Chelsea came into Friday morning's match with the advantage following their 1-0 win over Lyon in the first leg last week, and had the better of the first half against their French opponents after weathering early pressure.
Kerr and England international Lauren James were a particular threat whenever they got their foot on the ball, running at Lyon's defenders and linking up superbly as they grew in confidence heading towards half-time.
Matildas defender Ellie Carpenter started her second straight Champions League match following her return to form after an ACL tear, and was able to cancel out the threat posed by Chelsea and Norway winger Guro Reiten.
Chelsea weren't able to capitalise on their early chances, with Kerr in particular being regularly double-marked by Lyon's defensive pairing of Vanessa Gilles and Wendie Renard, while Chilean international Christiane Endler made a number of acrobatic saves to keep her side in the tie.
Neither side were able to find the back of the net in the first half, in part due to wasteful set pieces and shots off target, but with just a single-goal lead, the Blues were always vulnerable against the eight-time Champions League winners, particularly with the injury absence of central defender Millie Bright.
Indeed, it was Lyon who struck first. In the 77th minute, USA midfielder Lindsey Horan charged towards the by-line and squared the ball towards the front post following a failed set-piece routine.
Gilles charged in front of Chelsea captain Magdalena Eriksson and clipped the ball off the chest of a diving Ann-Katrin Berger and into the net, taking the aggregate score to 1-1 and forcing the game into extra-time.
Having made just three substitutions over the course of the match, Chelsea began to run out of legs, struggling to string passes together and largely relying on long transition balls to Kerr and substitute Johanna Rytting Kaneryd.
Their sloppiness resulted in Lyon taking a 2-1 lead in the 110th minute when Germany international Sara Dabritz hammered home a fizzing cross from substitute Ada Hegerberg, which was missed by four Chelsea defenders lined up across the 18-yard box.
However, in one of the most dramatic finishes to a UWCL quarterfinal tie, a VAR check awarded Chelsea a penalty in the second minute of injury time after James was tripped over by a Lyon defender.
Several minutes passed before Chelsea veteran Maren Mjelde stepped up to bury her spot-kick in the 128th minute, bringing the scores back level and sending the match to a penalty shoot-out.
Chelsea's luck held out over the course of the shoot-out, with glovewoman Berger becoming the hero of the night as she saved shots from both Lyon captain Renard and Horan to send Chelsea through to the semifinals.
While their hopes of achieving an unprecedented treble are still alive, they'll first need to make it past former winners Barcelona — the team that defeated Chelsea in the 2021 UWCL final.
Meanwhile, Caitlin Foord's Arsenal will contest the second UWCL semifinal after defeating Bayern Munich 2-1 on aggregate, making it through to the final four for the first time since 2013.
They'll face former UWCL champions Wolfsburg, who edged past French giants PSG 2-1 on aggregate.
