3 minutes Cascarino easily smashes Rolfo down the right flank and holds up a cross that is headed wide by the retreating Malard. Lyon got off to a quick start.
2 minutes Horan is fouled 35 yards from goal, allowing Lyon to send Renard and Mbock Bathy forward. In fact, Bacha goes straight to the goal, rolls a few meters. Panos had it covered.
34 seconds Barcelona were leading 1-0 at this point last year.
1 minute Peep peep! Lyon gets the game going, kicking from right to left in front of our eyes.
The players pose for the pre-game photos, and then Captains Alexia Putellas and Wendie Renard handle the formalities. It’s time for the 2022 Champions League final!
Some domestic news
“According to Barca’s Twitter account, the fans sing their boring ‘Oh le le, Oh la la’ song,” begins Charles Antaki, “when this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the ‘…. by far the best team the world has ever seen.’ Song with a degree of plausibility, at least compared to how it’s sung with the utmost respect by, say, fans of Watford and whatnot.
Thanks Will, hello everyone. Before the players come out of the tunnel, let’s remember the teams.
Barcelona (4-3-3) panos; Torrejon, Paredes, Leon, Rolfo; Bonmati, Guijarro, Putellas; Graham Hansen, Hermoso, Caldentey.
Substitutes: Font, Meritxell Munoz, Serrano, Pina, Ouahabi, Pereira, Crnogorcevic, Oshoala, Martens, Syrstad Engen.
Lyon (4-3-3) Endler; Zimmermann, Renard, Mbock Bathy, Bacha; Horan, Henry, Macario; Cascarino, Hegerberg, Malard.
Substitutes: Bouhaddi, Holmgren, Morroni, Gunnarsdottir, Le Sommer, Egurrola, Van De Donk, Sombath, Laurent, Buchanan, Cayman, Benyahia.
referee Lina Lehtovaara (Finland).
It was a pleasure, albeit brief, but it’s time to give it back Rob Smith. He’s fresh from covering the Scottish Cup final so handle him with care.
A refresher on how the finalists got here. Barcelona dominated the group stage, winning all six games against Arsenal, Hoffenheim and Danish club HB Køge. In the quarter-finals, they defeated Real Madrid 8-3 on aggregate before coming up short in the semi-finals against Wolfsburg, where they won the first leg 5-1 but lost the second leg 2-0.
Lyon, meanwhile, won all but one of their group stage games, losing only once to Bayern Munich. They edged past Juventus in the quarter-finals, winning 4-3 on aggregate before defeating PSG, their domestic rivals, in the semi-finals.
Lyon fans bring the noise to Juventus Stadium. Photo: Yara Nardi/ReutersAlong with the fans who traveled to Turin, the Blaugranes are cheered on by thousands at home. A large crowd has gathered to watch the game in Plaça de Catalunya, in central Barcelona.
A reminder of how to watch the big game. It airs on ITV4 from 5:30pm. That’s in – oh, wow, is that the time? – almost two minutes.
Like the rest of the Women’s Champions League this season, it will also be available to stream live on DAZN’s YouTube channel. Just in case you are extremely online and prefer that to TV.
Updated at 5:31pm BST
The warm-up has started Lyon enter the pitch to put the finishing touches to pre-match preparations.
The mood is building in the Juventus Stadium. Barcelona fans have greeted the team coaches with smoke bombs and a sea of flags as the stands gradually fill with supporters.
𝙊𝙝 𝙡𝙚 𝙡𝙚
𝙊𝙝 𝙡𝙖 𝙡𝙖
𝙎𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙡 𝘽𝙖𝙧𝙘̧𝙖 𝙚́𝙨
𝙀𝙡 𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙧 𝙦𝙪𝙚 𝙝𝙞 𝙝𝙖— FC Barcelona Femení (@FCBfemeni) May 21, 2022
Speaking of pre-game interviews, Suzanne Wrack spoke to Lyon’s Catarina Macario. The USA international has the unenviable task of deciphering Barcelona’s defense tonight.
Updated at 5:24pm BST
Will Magee here temporarily filling in for Rob Smyth. If you’re looking for some pre-match reading, why not check out Emma Kemp’s interview with Ellie Carpenter? She starts tonight as a right-back for Lyon.
Updated at 4:59pm BST
Team news from Lyon
… and here is Lyon’s starting XI.
News from the Barcelona team
This is how the reigning champions will line up tonight.
Game preview of Suzanne Wreck
preamble
Hello and welcome to the live broadcast of the Champions League final between Barcelona and Lyon in Turin. The best sport — the really, really, really good stuff — doesn’t need hype or fanfare. This game can be summed up in less than 50 characters, let alone 140: the reigning champions versus the eternal champions.
Lyon have won this tournament seven times, five of them in a row from 2016 to 2020. But Barcelona followed them last year and go into the final tonight as heavy favourites. Her record in all competitions this season comes from the realm of fantastic football: P44 W43 D0 L1 F210 A19.
May I interrupt you there? Could you please go back and look at those numbers again: 44 games, 43 wins, TWO HUNDRED TEN GOALS! Her team includes Alexia Putellas, the best player in the world, as well as Jenni Hermoso, Caroline Hansen, Aitana Bonmatí and many other stars. When our panel of experts chose the top 100 women footballers in the world late last year, six of the top 10 were Barcelona players.
This time last year they beat Chelsea in the final in Gothenburg, scoring all four goals in the first 36 minutes. Lyon’s first task will be to get through the first 10 minutes unscathed.
Part of Barcelona’s journey (Drink!) to the top was a smashing 4-1 win over Lyon in the 2019 final. They fell victim to an even quicker start to the evening, with all four goals coming in the first half hour. That included a hat-trick from the great Ada Hegerberg, whose presence tonight could give the Barcelona defense the Heebie-Jeebies.
A win for Barcelona would complete their journey (drink!) from contenders to undisputed champions. In one fell swoop they can end 2019, retain the Champions League, beat Lyon for the first time in their history and prove beyond a doubt that they are the best team in the world.
Lyon would like to blur the picture a lot more. If they win, last season could be dismissed as a one-off event rather than a changing of the guard. But at the moment Lyon are in the unusual position of starting as underdogs. They are recovering from a miserable 2020-21, which saw Paris Saint-Germain end their long tenure as French and European champions (14 and five years respectively). Hegerberg missed the whole season with an ACL injury, so it would be understandable for Lyon to put an asterisk against his underperformance.
Lyon retaliated by beating PSG in this year’s Champions League semi-finals and will reclaim the French title with a game to go if they avoid defeat in Paris next weekend. It’s too early to say they’re back at their best, but at least they’re back where they belong – in a Champions League final.
Kick off 6 p.m.
Updated at 4:45pm BST