OL Lyonnes opened their Women's Champions League campaign by putting eight past Servette at the Stade de Geneve on Wednesday evening, and the odd thing is that the scoreline flatters the hosts. Lyon had 31 shots. Servette had one. The French champions led 4-0 at half-time and could have doubled that before the break if Jacintha Weimar in the Servette goal had not spent the evening doing the work of three keepers.
Marie-Antoinette Katoto took the match ball with three goals inside 19 minutes of playing time either side of the interval. Melchie Dumornay scored two and set up another. Ines Benyahia rounded things off late on. Two Servette defenders put the ball into their own net. That is the whole story of the night in four sentences, but the manner of it deserves a closer look.
Own goal, then Katoto takes over
It took eight minutes for the first one to go in, and Lyon did not even need to touch it last. Laia Balleste diverted a cross past her own keeper under pressure and from there the visitors simply kept coming. Katoto's first arrived on 28 minutes from a Dumornay pass. Her second came on 40, this time with Ada Hegerberg providing the assist, and Dumornay herself made it four in first-half stoppage time after Salma Paralluelo picked her out.
Servette's plan, as far as one could tell, was to sit deep and hope. It lasted eight minutes. The possession count finished at 78.3 per cent to 21.7, and Lyon touched the ball 63 times inside the Servette penalty area. Servette managed three touches in Lyon's.
Second half was more of the same
Katoto completed her hat-trick two minutes after the restart, Lily Yohannes laying it on for her, and Dumornay added her second on 54. Lyon had five by then and there was still more than half an hour to play. Lara Strik became the second Servette player to score at the wrong end on 68 minutes, and Benyahia, who had been busy all night without finding the net, finally got her goal a minute from time after Caroline Weir slipped her in.
Weimar deserves a line of her own. Lyon put nine attempts on target and she kept out the rest, including a Liana Joseph effort from the left of the box late on that would have made it nine. Without her the number would have been embarrassing rather than merely brutal.
What it tells us about Lyon's season
Nothing that anyone following the women's game did not already suspect. Lyon reshaped their attack again over the summer and the new pieces are already fitting together: Paralluelo and Yohannes both registered assists, Weir did too, and Dumornay looks like the player around whom everything else turns. Katoto, who arrived from PSG with plenty to prove, has answered the question about whether she would score for Lyon in the most direct way possible.
The real tests come later. Chelsea are due in Lyon next Wednesday at 20:00 BST, and that fixture will say far more about where Lyon sit among Europe's elite than a rout of a Swiss side who never had the ball. Servette, for their part, host nobody next week and will be glad of it.
Match facts: Servette Chenois 0-8 OL Lyonnes, UEFA Women's Champions League, Stade de Geneve, Wednesday 23 September 2026. Goals: Balleste og 8, Katoto 28, 40, 47, Dumornay 45+1, 54, Strik og 68, Benyahia 89. Half-time 0-4. Shots 1-31, on target 1-9, possession 21.7%-78.3%. Assists: Dumornay, Hegerberg, Paralluelo, Yohannes, Weir. Lyon host Chelsea on Wednesday 30 September, 20:00 BST.
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