Olivia Smith’s late strike gives Arsenal edge over OL Lyonnes in WCL semi-final

A calamitous defence error from the goalkeeper Christiane Endler helped defending champions Arsenal to come from behind against OL Lyonnes and ensure they take a narrow lead into next week’s Champions League semi-final second leg in France.

Jule Brand had giving the visiting team, the record eight-time winners of this competition, a first-half lead in front of 26,758 fans at the Emirates Stadium. However, first Endler fumbled the ball into her own net via a deflection off Ingrid Engen as the Gunners upped the pressure in the second half before Olivia Smith gave them the lead late after another defensive mistake.

Renée Slegers may have insisted that “last year was last year, this year is this year” as Arsenal prepared to play Lyonnes at the semi-final stage for a second successive season, but the first half of this encounter felt decidedly familiar.

The Gunners were bright in north London, easing through an early spell of pressure from the rampant visitors, who are unbeaten in the Premier Ligue, having scored 72 and conceded just nine times. They are a different beast under former Barcelona and Washington Spirit manager Jonatan Giráldez, a more coherent and together one.

They also proved the more clinical of the two teams in the first half, Germany international Brand delivered the opener that put the Gunners into the recognisable territory of needing to come from behind in the knockout stages of the competition they battled to the end in last season. It was a poor goal for the home team to concede, Caitlin Foord’s pass was underhit, with the Australian forward under pressure in her own half, and Lyonnes worked the ball to Brand who eased past Kim Little and fired in.

The Gunners needed to be patient but there was frustration that they could not capitalise in the final third and at the lack of a single yellow card shown for repeated fouls on the livewire Smith.

Their best chance of the half fell to Foord, whose effort from the right didn’t have enough spin on it to loop in and was a little too ahead of Alessia Russo and Stina Blackstenius as it dipped down in front of the far post.

Despite the scoreline, there was a lot to like about Arsenal’s play and they came out after the break a decidedly different team and well and truly on the hunt, the cobwebs of the international break shaken off. The crowd thought they were back in it five minutes into the half but Smith’s effort crashed into the side-netting and one minute later the referee awarded a penalty for a Wendie Renard foul on Little, but it was ruled out by the video assistant referee after a lengthy check with the French defender having got a touch on the ball.