Norwegian Ada Hegerberg fired Olympique Lyon to an unprecedented fourth straight Women’s Champions League title with a first-half hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Barcelona in Saturday’s final at Budapest’s Groupama Arena.
The French side, packed with some of the finest international talent in the women’s game, proved far too strong for a Barcelona team playing in their first Champions League final.
Hegerberg struck her three goals in a blistering 16-minute spell midway through the first half as Lyon swept aside the Spaniards.
“It was almost a perfect match and that is rare in a final as a lot of things come into play, such as emotions. We managed to put that to one side,” said Lyon coach Reyneld Pedros, who said his team were “writing history”.
“It’s a lot of work but a lot of fun, too. If you look at this match, you can only be happy about what we’ve achieved,” he said.
Stronger, faster, smarter and more clinical, Lyon with 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Hegerberg in deadly form, showed exactly why they have reached eight finals in the past 10 seasons and are the undisputed powerhouse of .
Starting as underdogs, Barcelona knew they would have to deliver the performance of their lives to have a chance against Reynald Pedros’s expensively-assembled team and they had an early opportunity but their Liverpool-born forward Toni Duggan dragged her shot wide of Sarah Bouhaddi’s right-hand post.
Lyon responded to that early warning in swift and decisive fashion, taking a fifth-minute lead when Dutch winger Shanice van de Senden’s low cross was confidently converted by Budapest-born German international Dzsenifer Marozsan, to the delight of Hungarian fans in a 19,487 crowd.
Nine minutes later Hegerberg made no mistake from another low cross from Van de Senden after England’s Lucy Bronze had set up the counter-attack with a strong breakout from the back.
Barca were struggling to get any kind of foothold in the game and it was 3-0 in the 19th minute when Amel Majri’s ball from the left was driven home first time by 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Hegerberg.
