Matildas ace Ellie Carpenter has been given the right twenty fourth birthday current — by reserving a shot at a 3rd Girls’s Champions League triumph with Lyon.
The Australian worldwide defender was the toast of her teammates after their 2-1 victory within the semi-final second-leg at Paris St Germain on Sunday secured a 5-3 combination win and a spot within the remaining in opposition to champions Barcelona.
They gathered round her on the finish of the match on the Parc des Princes and sang ‘Completely satisfied Birthday’ to the dancing Matilda.
Now Carpenter has the exceptional alternative to win a 3rd Champions League winner’s medal with Europe’s most profitable girls’s aspect on the tender age of 24.
She was a non-playing substitute within the remaining after they beat Wolfsburg in 2020 and, agonisingly, suffered an ACL harm early within the 2022 showdown that they gained in opposition to Barcelona in Turin.
However now the Cowra star will probably be hoping to play a much bigger half within the showpiece fixture of the ladies’s recreation in Europe by dealing with the reigning champions once more in Bilbao, Spain, on Could 25, in a rematch of the 2019 and 2022 finals which have been each gained by Lyon.
The French giants will probably be going for a record-extending ninth title after targets from Selma Bacha and Melchie Dumornay secured a second win in every week over their home rivals.
After Lyon had gained the primary leg 3-2 at dwelling, they shortly caught PSG off-guard within the third minute on Sunday, with a brief nook that led to Bacha slicing inside to open the scoring with a low drive from the sting of the field.
They almost doubled the lead within the thirty fourth however PSG goalkeeper Constance Picaud pulled off an excellent save to stop teammate Jade Le Guilly from scoring an personal aim.
Carpenter had her work lower out in opposition to PSG’s sensible Tabitha Chawinga however did, for the big half, a sterling job marshalling the Malawian worldwide, who nonetheless managed to seize an equaliser 4 minutes earlier than the break with an angled drive.
Carpenter picked up a reserving for a second-half foul on Chawinga however her aspect continued to create the very best possibilities with Picaud having to make a wonderful save from France ahead Kadidiatou Diani within the forty third minute, Dumornay within the 52nd and each Amel Majri and Dumornay once more within the sixty fifth.
They ultimately put the tie to mattress 9 minutes from time when Majri crossed for 20-year-old Haiti worldwide Dumornay, who slotted dwelling to ensure a record-extending eleventh remaining for Lyon.
Barcelona had gained Saturday’s first semi-final, overturning a 1-0 first-leg deficit by defeating 10-player Chelsea 2-0 with targets from Aitana Bonmati and Fridolina Rolfo.
The victory was a controversial one with Chelsea boss Emma Hayes describing the important thing sending-off of Kadeisha Buchanan because the “worst in Girls’s Champions League historical past.”