Lyon beat Arsenal to reach the Women's Champions League final, and Arsenal captain Leah Williamson found herself describing a match broken by repeated video-review stoppages.
Alessia Russo pulled Arsenal level on aggregate with 15 minutes remaining, only for a late Jule Brand strike to stand after a VAR check that lasted three minutes and 10 seconds — a moment that sealed Lyon's passage to the final at Groupama Stadium.
The game crackled with decisions. In the seventh minute Lindsey Heaps had an opener disallowed for offside. A first-half penalty from Wendie Renard was saved by Daphne van Domselaar, but the goalkeeper had stepped off her line and the spot-kick was retaken and scored. Later, Melchie Dumornay won a penalty after VAR asked referee Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi to review the incident on the pitchside monitor. Replays after the final whistle showed that Lotte Wubben-Moy had played Jule Brand onside by the smallest of margins, and the late goal stood.
About 600 Arsenal fans had travelled for the return leg and left disgruntled. "It's hard, I felt like at the start of the game the ball was in play for about two minutes in 20," Williamson said after the match. "With the rules, I don't think we're all on the same page with it, so it's frustrating. it was very stop start."
Those interruptions and the flow of decisive VAR moments shaped the tie. Russo's equaliser kept Arsenal's hopes alive with 15 minutes to play; Brand's winner arrived late and survived the lengthy review that followed. Slegers reflected on the match in similarly blunt terms: "I thought it was very start stop in the first half, the game was not being played in any rhythm, which at times wasn't an issue for us to take some sting out of the game." She added, "But yeah, I haven't watched it back. We have to respect the decision and move on."
The victory sends OL Lyonnes to the final in Oslo on 23 May, where they will face Barcelona. Barcelona reached the Women's Champions League final for the sixth straight year after beating Bayern Munich 4-2 in the second leg and advancing 5-3 on aggregate following a 1-1 draw in Munich in the first leg.
For Arsenal, who entered this tie as the defending Women's Champions League winners, the defeat is a significant blow. Their exit from the competition, combined with earlier eliminations from the FA Cup and League Cup, leaves them facing a season without silverware.
The match at Groupama Stadium illustrated the thin margins that define modern European knockout football: a disallowed early chance, a penalty caused by an infringement later overturned by the rules on encroachment, an equaliser that forced extra drama and then a late winner that required a full three minutes and 10 seconds of VAR scrutiny before being confirmed by officials. Replays that showed Wubben-Moy had left Brand onside by the smallest margin only sharpened frustration among Arsenal players and supporters alike.
What happens next is clear on the calendar. Lyon move on to Oslo and a high-profile final against a Barcelona side that has now made the last match of the competition six years running. Arsenal return to London to confront the immediate reality of a trophyless run this season and the questions raised by the way VAR influenced their semi-final exit — questions their captain and supporters have already made plain.
