(Football news) Chelsea women’s team didn’t play particularly but still managed to knock out holders Lyon in a dramatic penalty shootout to reach the semifinals of the Women’s Champions League at Stamford Bridge. Maren Mjelde was the saviour as she scored a penalty which was awarded by VAR with the final kick of the game. She cancelled out goals from Lyon’s Vanessa Gilles and Sara Däbritz as Chelsea levelled the tie up to 2-2 following their 1-0 win in the first leg at Lyon.

Ann-Katrin Berger was the man of the match for Chelsea in the shootout as she saved penalties from Wendie Renard and Lindsey Horan to set up a semifinal clash with Barcelona. In the first half, Berger made a brilliant save of Delphine Cascarino’s stinging shot as Lyon also saw two easy headed chances from corners. Chelsea began to create their own chances as Sam Kerr fired the first shot on target. Lyon coach Sonia Bompastor wasted little time and bought on Ada Hegerberg at the half-time break, despite the striker having played only 20 minutes this season.

Emma Hayes made changes in the second half which meant that Chelsea could provide much more resistance in midfield. Hegerberg didn’t have a clear chance until after the hour when she nodded wide. It was the eight-time champions, who took the lead when Horan swept a low cross toward the near post that was quite easily tapped in by Gilles. With the teams now level on aggregate, the tempo of the game increased but no further goals were scored and an extra 30 minutes was needed.

After playing almost 200 minutes of the tie, Lyon finally took the lead for the first time in the tie when Magda Eriksson failed to clear the ball from her feet of Däbritz who fired a low shot across Berger’s goal. Despite Lyon thinking the tie was done and dusted, the hosts were awarded a penalty deep in stoppage time following a lengthy VAR review for a foul on James.

This time Mjelde stepped up and scored the spot kick as she took the match to a shootout. For Chelsea, Mjelde, Kerr, Hegerberg and Jessie Fleming all converted their penalties while Berger did her job in goal to give Chelsea a 4-3 win in the shootout and set up a mouth watering semi final clash with Barcelona.

In the other semifinal, Arsenal are going to face VfL Wolfsburg after the Germans played out a gritty draw with PSG on Thursday as they went through 2-1 on aggregate. Wolfsburg on the other hand won 1-0 at the Parc des Princes as Alexandra Popp’s goal in the 20th minute was enough last week in front of packed VW Arena as 14,367 fans were present, despite Kadidiatou Diani’s equaliser 10 minutes later for PSG.

Also read: Manchester United reveal second quarter results, owe nearly £1bn