Preview: Lyon Women vs Wolfsburg Women - prediction, team news, lineups

Lyon Women will attempt to overturn a narrow deficit when they welcome Wolfsburg Women to Groupama Stadium for Thursday's Women's Champions League clash.

The German side showed great defensive resilience to claim a 1-0 win in last week's quarter-final first leg, giving them something to work with in their upcoming trip to France.

Match preview

Lyon impressed in the inaugural Women's Champions League league phase, winning five and drawing one of their six matches to secure second spot and direct progression to the quarter-finals.

As the record European champions, the French giants entered their tie with Wolfsburg as favourites to progress to the semi-finals, but they have work to do after falling to a 1-0 defeat in Germany last week.

The disappointing result represented Lyon's first competitive defeat since losing 4-1 at home to Arsenal in the UWCL semi-finals in April last year.

Jonatan Giraldez's side then experienced another frustrating outing in Saturday's Premiere Ligue away clash against Strasbourg, where they had to come from behind on two separate occasions to salvage a 2-2 draw.

While they may have produced two underwhelming performances on the road, Lyon will still fancy their chances of coming through their tie against Wolfsburg, considering they have won all 15 of their competitive home matches this season.

They will also take confidence from the fact that they have never lost back-to-back games in the UWCL.

Wolfsburg, meanwhile, have already negotiated one knockout round after finishing in ninth place in the UWCL league phase.

Die Wolfinnen saw off Italian giants Juventus in the knockout phase playoffs, playing out a 2-2 draw on home turf before pulling off a 2-0 victory in Turin.

The two-time European champions are now eyeing their first semi-final appearance since reaching the final in 2022-23 after establishing a 1-0 advantage thanks to Lineth Beerensteyn's deflected effort.

With one eye on Thursday's second leg, Wolfsburg were unable to record a sixth consecutive victory in Sunday's six-goal thriller against Union Berlin.

Stephan Lerch's side scored two late goals to rescue a 3-3 draw in a game that saw midfielder Janina Minge finish the game in goal following Stina Johannes's 87th-minute red card.

Wolfsburg will hope to avoid similar drama in the second leg, and they can take encouragement from the fact that they have progressed from all 27 UEFA two-legged ties in which they established a first-leg lead.

Lyon Women Women's Champions League form:

W W D W W L

Lyon Women form (all competitions):

W W W W L D

Wolfsburg Women Women's Champions League form:

W L L D W W

Wolfsburg Women form (all competitions):

W W W W W D

Team News

Lyon are still unable to call upon forward Liana Joseph, who has been sidelined since October with an ACL injury.

Midfielder Korbin Shrader and winger Jule Brand could feature in the starting lineup after coming off the bench to play the final half an hour in last week’s first leg.

Melchie Dumornay, who has scored four times in the UWCL this season, will be looking to continue her impressive form, having scored three goals in her last five competitive appearances.

As for the visitors, Lerch remains without Lena Lattwein, Kessya Bussy and Alex Popp due to injury.

Midfielder Justine Kielland will be hoping to recover from a knee issue in time for the second leg in France.

Beerensteyn will continue to lead the line for the visitors, having scored five goals in UWCL appearances this season.

Lyon Women possible starting lineup:

Endler; Lawrence, Renard, Engen, Bacha; Dumornay, Egurrola, Shrader; Brand, Chawinga, Hegerberg

Wolfsburg Women possible starting lineup:

Johannes; Bjelde, Dijkstra, Kuver, Minge, Linder; Huth, Kielland, Peddemors, Endemann; Beerensteyn

We say: Lyon Women 3-1 Wolfsburg Women (Lyon to win 3-2 on aggregate)

Lyon have been impressive at both ends of the pitch across their 15 home victories this season, and we think they will make full use of home advantage to turn the tie in their favour with a relatively comfortable victory.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.