Bayern Munich v Chelsea: Women’s Champions League semi final, first leg!

8 min Zadrazil wins a throw deep inside the Chelsea half and Beerensteyn megs Carter, but can’t collect cleanly around the other side.

6 min It’s Chelsea pushing at the moment. They’re a better side than Bayern and it looks like Bayern know it, sitting off and waiting for a counter.

5 min Andersson darts one into Harder, and immediately Ilestedt is in and introducing her to grass. Chelsea can’t make anything of the free-kick.

3 min Nice from Ji, finding Harder, and immediately Kerr looks in behind … but the ball zips into touch. Still, that’s a decent flash of Chelsea, and an indication of how they want to play.

2 min Glas flights a decent-looking ball over the top for Buhl, who can’t quite catch up with it.

1 min A fast and untidy start, the ball fizzing about back and forth before disappearing into touch.

If I was Jens Scheuer, I’d be asking my forwards to buzz about Millie Bright, who can be suspect in possession and on the turn – especially given the continuing absence of Magdalena Eriksson, the team captain.

Karen Carney also hopes Chelsea go for it, and fully expects them to win.

PSG-Barca has finished 1-1. That second leg is going to be alright.

It’d be nice to think that both sides will properly go for this. Chelsea just have so much going forward that it makes sense for them to have at it and Bayern will know that if they can’t win at home they’ve got a problem. But it’s rarely the way of games of this magnitude, so something cagey seems more likely.

I love Emma Hayes. She – and Casey Stoney – have nailed that managerial sweet-spot of astuteness and inspiration.

Emma Hayes she was satisfied with a point against City, and notes that this isn’t just a game with a few days to prepare but the culmination of years of work. I wonder how her players will respond to that admission – you can see how some might find that daunting, but presumably they’ll be galvanised else she’d not have said it.

And the League Cup final kicks off at 4.30pm BST.

Bayern, meanwhile, make three changes from their win in the quarter-finals, Weninger, Dallmann and Schuller dropping out with Laudehr, Buhl and Lohmann coming in. I’m not sure if Schuller, her team’s leading scorer, is injured, but Benkarth makes it despite being a doubt.

Uefa reckon both sides are playing 4-3-3 and perhaps they are, but I wonder if Chelsea’s front three will be configured with Harder in the middle. I’d expect her in behind Kerr, but otherwise Emma Hayes makes one change from the draw with City, Reiten replacing Cuthbert – Magdalena Eriksson, her captain, is still injured so Sophie Ingle continues at the back.

Bayern Munich (4-3-3): Benkarth; Glas, Hegering, Ilestedt, Simon; Zadrazil, Laudehr, Bühl; Lohmann, Magull, Beerensteyn. Subs: Grohs, Lehmann, Donhauser, Boye, Corley, Dallmann, Schuller, Asseyi, Wenninger, Vilhjalmsdottir, Pollak.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Berger; Carter, Bright, Ingle, Andersson; Leupolz, Ji, Reiten; Kirby, Harder; Kerr. Subs: Musovic, Telford, Blundell, England, Fleming, Cuthbert, Charles, Spence, Fox, Beever-Jones.

Well then – Lyon are out. Which may seem like a strange way of starting an MBM featuring Bayern Munich and Chelsea … but for the fact that, in the entire history of club football, only once has a club been as dominant Les Fenottes – Real Madrid, who snaffled the first five men’s Champions Leagues, from 1955-56 to 1959-60. Their elimination by PSG is a colossal deal, and we now know that come 16 May, this trophy will have a new guardian.

Both Bayern and Chelsea will fancy themselves to be the ones. The home side aren’t in a particularly “good moment”, having lost two of their last three games – one of them to Wolfsburg, who Chelsea despatched in the last round. But they remain top of the league and won 26 games straight at the start of the season, a fair effort.

Chelsea, meanwhile, are in the middle of scrap for the ages at the top of the WSL, two points clear of Manchester City with whom they shared a brilliant but sapping 2-2 draw in midweek. More than any other team left in the competition – and perhaps more than any other team in the world – Chelsea have transcendent individuals able to turn any game, Pernille Harder and Sam Kerr in particular. This is their moment, and they know it.

Kick-off: 5pm local, 4pm BST