Lyon achieves another double Cup-Championship for the sixth consecutive season. As last year, OL won against Montpellier on the score of 2 goals to 1, in a match where the decision was made on an individual feat Louisa Necib late in the game. A Lyon win and the honors for Montpellier who dreamed for 80 minutes ...

Goals to start

In a Stade des Alpes with more than 8,000 spectators, the match started on the run, which had to surprise the few spectators behind. In the second minute, Montpellier took the lead thanks to Andressa Alves. The Brazilian number 10 at the conclusion of a left side action with an overflow of Sofia Jakobsson, who center towards Laetitia Tonazzi. The attacker héraultaise can not take back the ball well embarrassed by Wendie Renard. Andressa Alves emerges at the far post and ahead of Amel Majri to propel the leather into the net.

A quick goal and a real thunderclap in this final where Lyon appeared as the big favorite. Celebrated as it should by the Montpellier players, the goal will receive a quick response from OL. Following a corner from Lyon, Griedge Mbock is at the reception of a Pauline Bremer center, and places a half-volley, which ends in the small net right goals of Solène Durand (5th). The advantage to the score of Heraultaises lasted three minutes.

Beyond and fright Lyonnaise early in the game, these first five minutes are the demonstration that Montpellier did not come to Grenoble to undergo, and hold as long as possible hoping for a boost of fate.

At the beginning of the game, the MHSC bloc moves quite high on the field with a pressing, which sometimes goes into the opposing 30 meters to hinder or prevent the Lyon raises.

A tactical device that leaves spaces in the back of the defense of Montpellier, a weakness that OL will try to exploit. For example, there are combinations between Eugénie Le Sommer and Ada Hegerberg, which lead to two strikes in the eighth and 19th minute. But Hegerberg sees his attempts missing, or finish in Solene Durand's gloves. Camille Abily will also come to use the door Herault in the 9th minute. A shot from Abily that Durand push back with a nice clapper, thus diverting the ball for a corner.

If Montpellier embarrass Lyon, this does not prevent the players to create opportunities. The Héraultaises are in fact, always on the verge of being caught backhand by the attackers of the OL. Witness this action in the 25th minute when Camille Abily seems to have found Eugenie Le Sommer in the back of Marion Torrent. The number 9 Lyons transforms the action, but the assistant referee had raised his flag and the goal is invalidated. On corner, the Lyonnaises are close to open the scoring, a goal denied following a foul (21st) and a balloon easily repulsed by the Herault defense after several Lyon attempts (23rd).

Andressa Alves in shock, the public too

We play the 30th minute, and the game develops side Lyon. We then see a player remained on the ground: Andressa Alves. The game continues and we have to wait for the ball to come out in a corner in favor of OL so that the referee comes to the bedside of the player of the MHSC. Alves is on the ground and will not get up to the point that she finds herself out on stretcher, unconscious, after a shock in the neck. After the meeting, she will tell us she has no memories of her leaving the field. Immediately replaced by Virginia Torrecilla, Alves will follow the end of the match from the bench in Montpellier.

The last fifteen minutes of play sees the same pattern repeat itself: an applied Montpellier that annoys Lyon in the middle of the field thanks to the work of Rumi Utsugi and Sandie Toletti. But an OL that multiplies the situations of goals: Hegerberg, Le Sommer or Wendie Renard will find themselves in a position to score without managing to endanger Solène Durand.

Lyon in need of solutions

At the break, Montpellier seems to deserve the 1-1 first by its ability to seize the Lyon machine, which fails to deploy all its qualities in the offensive sector.

A stronger feeling at the return of the locker room. Montpellier then decided to play lower, often grouped in his half field and with the same work of harassment of the media and laterals. A job that pays because the Lyonnaises seem driven in a false rhythm, where they commit unusual technical mistakes.

Montpelliéraines take confidence and rely on their technical skills to lead some counters, which put in trouble the rearguard Lyon. Yet, no real opportunities for the players of the MHSC, which must be content with a game of chess where they hold their opponents in respect.

The first dangerous action of OL comes in the 62nd minute against a cons led by Wendie Renard. The Lyon defender who finds Eugénie Le Sommer on the left. The Sommer sends the ball into the surface where Renard is at the conclusion with a repulsion repelled by the foot of Solène Durand. Fifteen minutes later, it is Ada Hegerberg who touches the ball of the head before it is captured by the héraultaise keeper. Nothing works, Lyon seems entangled in a match that runs to the penalty shootout. The time to rethink this statistic: since 2004, OL has systematically lost their matches if they decided on penalties. It happened 6 times, three eliminations and three lost finals, including two ... against Montpellier.

Necib hunts goals and doubts

For the last quarter of an hour, Gérard Prêcheur put on Louisa Nécib. At the hour of play, the coach Lyonnais had already injected fresh blood with the entry of Lotta Schelin instead of Elodie Thomis. With no result, Lyon released his second joker, Nécib whose entry is unanimous at the Stade des Alpes, supporters including Hérault. No doubt that his gem of goal scored against Paris in the Champions League went around France.
And in the 86th minute, Louisa puts it back.

On a long aerial balloon in the Montpellier camp, rebound tricks Sakina Karchaoui, lobbed by the ball. Ada Hegerberg and Linda Sembrant find themselves at the duel and it is the Norwegian who manages to divert the ball towards Louisa Nécib. With a little space, she controls, lets the ball bounce, before adjusting a shot that lodges in the left corner of Solène Durand, who has not moved.

The guardian of Montpellier could she intervene? A question that will remain unresolved but does not detract from the quality of this shot from elsewhere and that unblocks a meeting that was moving slowly but surely to the shots on goal. A goal that caused the clamor of the Stade des Alpes carried by the magic Nécib. Louisa, she remains calm even if it has just tipped the match and knock out Montpellier who will not have the means to return to the game.

If Jean-Louis Saez, the Hérault coach, managed to win on the tactical field, he could not get away with a great paw of the number 10 Lyonnaise. At the end of the meeting, it was difficult to question the Montpellier coach, groggy like his players and aware that he was close to the exploit.

At his side, Patrice Lair who lives one of his last matches in the staff Hérault, before joining Paris where he hopes not to have to relive the same type of scenario.

One of the few players we take the time to discuss is Andressa Alves.

When she asks how she is, she tells us she is sad. Over the course of the discussion, we understand that Andressa is well (physically speaking) that she has no after-effects of her shock and her hurried exit from the field. On the contrary, she seems dejected and angry at having lost, having to go out and leaving her teammates on the ground. A rage of victory expressed after his goal early in the game and found two hours later in the mixed zone.

Montpellier did not serve as a stooge in this final. On the contrary, they proposed one of the most beautiful oppositions this season against the ogre Lyon. The disappointment of the Héraultaises is at the height of their performance and the proximity of a feat for the MHSC. And besides after the match, we were reassured. They told us, they will come back next year!

Relive 5 minutes of the game in video, reliving the goals of Alves, Mbock and Necib!

Photos: FFF and Maya Mans