PARIS, France -- European women's football has been dominated by Lyon, but as investment increases across the continent, multiple threats have emerged to the French side going into the Champions League quarter-finals this week.
They sit a point behind Paris Saint-Germain in the French league and on Wednesday the clubs take their rivalry into Europe as they meet in the first leg of their quarter-final. "Paris have had good teams and good players before. But their current side has been together for several years. They haven't changed much while we have lost players," said Lyon skipper and defensive colossus Wendie Renard recently.
She left Wolfsburg for Chelsea last summer for a fee understood to be a world record of over 250,000 pounds , and in London has joined up with the likes of Australia's Sam Kerr. "It's taken time for there to be greater parity or opposition in the latter stages of the Champions League which is not just a French team versus a German team," Hayes added.