Lyon continued their remarkable European dominance as Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg’s first-half hat-trick against Barcelona helped the French giants secure a fourth consecutive Women’s Champions League title.
Victory saw England’s Lucy Bronze and Wales’ most-capped player Jess Fishlock get their hands on club women’s football’s biggest continental prize.
First-time finalists Barcelona almost led early on through Lionesses forward Toni Duggan, but after she fired narrowly wide, Lyon ruthlessly netted four times before the break.
Former Liverpool and Arsenal forward Asisat Oshoala, who was lively despite coming on as a late substitute, netted a late consolation (which is Barcelona’s first ever goal in the Champions League Final) for the Catalan club in Hungary’s capital Budapest but they could do nothing to stop Lyon claiming a sixth European crown in eight years.
Having secured a 13th consecutive French league title in April, the French club were playing in their eighth European final since 2010, after a 3-2 aggregate win over Chelsea in the semi-finals.
The best-funded side on the continent wrapped up the latest of their 23 major honours of this decade before half-time, largely thanks to Hegerberg’s clinical treble.
The 23-year-old made history as she became the first player to net a hat-trick in a Women’s Champions League final since the competition’s rebranding in 2010.
The Netherlands winger Shanice Van de Sanden’s pace down Lyon’s right created the game’s first two goals, as she crossed for Germany’s Dzsenifer Marozsan for the opener and then similarly for Hegerberg.
Amel Majri then squared the ball in the area for Hegerberg’s second, before Bronze’s whipped right-wing cross met the striker’s run perfectly to complete her 16-minute treble inside the first half hour.
The result saw Bronze – who helped Lyon win last year’s final – and Fishlock both earn the second European titles of their careers, although the Wales midfielder missed 2015’s final with German club Frankfurt because her loan spell from Seattle had ended.
England international Izzy Christiansen also collected a winner’s medal but did not feature in the final, having broken her leg and damaged ankle ligaments in March.
Oshoala, who became the first African to play and score in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, will be among the stars of the Super Falcons squad at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France this summer.
