MANCHESTER, England (AP) - Saki Kumagai scored a penalty inside two minutes to set titleholder Lyon on its way to beating Manchester City 3-1 in the first leg of their Women’s Champions League semifinal on Saturday.
Paris Saint-Germain also took a big step toward an all-French final after winning at Barcelona 3-1.
Kumagai’s spot kick resulted from a penalty against Carli Lloyd, the world player of the year who handled the ball.
The game pitted Lloyd against compatriot Alex Morgan, with the Americans taking advantage of a gap in the U.S. schedule to secure short-term moves to European clubs this season.
It is more likely to be Morgan heading to the final in Cardiff in June.
“I’m not counting us out yet,” Lloyd said. “There’s still belief and confidence that we can get this done.”
Although Kosovare Asllani canceled out Kumagai’s spot kick, Dzsenifer Marozsan restored Lyon’s lead to cap a thrilling opening 16 minutes in Manchester.
Lyon’s experience as a three-time Champions League winner was clear against the competition newcomers as Eugenie Le Sommer added a third in the 68th.
“The motivation, the confidence is to go all the way,” Lyon forward Ada Hegerberg said. “It’s quite a tough challenge this year when you’ve won everything last year. This was a great first leg.”
In Barcelona, PSG was led by forward Marie-Laure Delie, who scored the opener before crossing for Cristiane to double the lead before halftime.
Shirley Cruz Trana chipped a third goal over goalkeeper Sandra Panos, and Barbara Latorre pulled one back for the hosts in the 89th.
Last year, PSG edged Barcelona after a 1-0 aggregate victory in the quarterfinals. Lyon then went on to thrash PSG 7-0 and 1-0 in the semifinals en route to the title.
The second-leg semifinals are next Saturday.
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