BACK STRONGER? Servette v OL Lyonnes preview
It’s week one of the 2026-27 UEFA Women’s Champions League and on Wednesday evening Swiss champions Servette Chênois take on French champions OL Lyonnes in Geneva.
Chloe Shields talks to Servette’s Daïna Bourma, and Clare McEwen speaks to Lyon’s Damaris Egurrola to preview matchday one.
Servette Chênois
It’s been a long time coming for Servette to hear the UEFA Women’s Champions League anthem play out across Geneva once again. A 6-2 aggregate playoff win against Sparta Praha confirmed their place in the league phase for the first time since 2021 – after a dominant 2025-26 campaign winning the Swiss Nationalliga A by 11 points.
Their previous stint in the UWCL ended in the group phase without picking up a single point against Wolfsburg, Juventus or Chelsea. The newly-structured league phase means Servette will now face competition they’ll feel confident they could beat in OH Leuven and HB Køge. But that comes after a difficult match-up with neighbours Lyon.
Servette boast a squad of experienced European internationals and young talent, with players from Italy – including play-off goal scorer Gloria Marinelli – Poland, Switzerland and France. With a diverse team and five years of hard work, the side now see this as a stage they deserve, and are ready to be playing at.
Servette fullback Daïna Bourma is no stranger to UWCL nights or this week’s competition.
Her first season in Switzerland was that 2021 campaign. The former French youth international came through the ranks of UWCL giants Lyon, leaving her childhood club in 2017 for Montpellier before a stint at Scottish giants Rangers, finally making her home at Servette.
Her side’s opening fixture under the lights will be a special night for Bourma and she is confident, despite the strength of Lyon’s world-class attack, that they are ready to compete, not just make up the numbers in the competitive league phase.
She says this is the culmination of five years of hard work, investment and increased visibility for Swiss football which is now finally being played again on the continental stage.
Chloe Shields speaks to Bourma, who wants to embrace the challenge and show what her team can do in the “greatest club competition in the world”:
You were part of the Servette squad last time you played in the UWCL in 2021, what are your memories of that experience? Can you bring something different this time around?
Daïna Bourma: It’s crazy that it’s us, we’re here and I feel like this year it’s more like we deserve to be here.
There’s five years of work, of commitment, of course, and the approach we had in 2021 isn’t going to be the same now in 2026.
We’re ready to compete. We have six games, it’s a different qualification, so we have opponents now that we can get something from.
We’re really looking forward to it and we’re ready.
For you, facing OL Lyonnes, the club where you were developed, must be a really special moment?
Bourma: It’s amazing, I am very happy.
I think if I wanted anyone in this group it would be Lyon. I grew up there, I live there, my family is from there.
It was an emotional moment for me when I found out we were going to play against Lyon.
For me they are the best team in Europe and you then learn from the best.
It’s amazing and I’m very excited to see what we can do against those teams.
OL Lyonnes
OL Lyonnes have a terrific history in the UEFA Women’s Champions League. They won five in a row between 2016 and 2020 and have eight titles in total.
In 2021-22, they beat Barcelona in the final but that was the last time they lifted the trophy.
Since then, Barcelona have beaten them in two finals (2023-24 and last season) and English teams Chelsea and Arsenal got the better of them in the knockout stages in 2022-23 and 2024-25.
Over the last 10 years alone, OL Lyonnes have won the UWCL five times, been runners-up twice, and been semi-finalists once – their worst performance in that time was a quarter-final loss on penalties to Chelsea.
Last year’s final against Barcelona was a hard one to take for the team. And now OL Lyonnes seem more determined than ever.
They’ve added more big name players to an already impressive squad. One key forward is Salma Paralluelo – who scored twice in the final for Barcelona last year in the 90th and 93rd minutes to rub salt in their wounds. Then there’s Caroline Weir from Real Madrid, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd (who suffered an ACL injury before the season started) from Chelsea, and goalkeeper Maria Luisa-Grohs from Bayern. So the French champions have basically recruited from all their key UWCL rivals.
But they’ve also lost a few too: Kadidiatou Diani, Lindsey Heaps (above, left), Alice Sombath, Maeline Mendy, Kysha Sylla, and Sofie Svava.
If league results are anything to go by, the changes are all to the good – in just three games, they’ve scored 22 goals from nine different players.
It’s a great start but OL Lyonnes never shy away from admitting the UWCL is one of their main objectives and it’s no different this season. They want to compete at the top, they want to beat the best, and they want to lessen the memory of last season’s heartbreak.
Damaris Egurrola has experienced both sides of a UWCL final: winning in her first full season with the club in 2021-22 but missing out to Barcelona twice.
She has been a fixture in Lyon’s midfield since she joined from Everton in January 2021. The Dutch international is one of the more experienced players in the club and speaks to Clare McEwen ahead of their trip to Servette.
How much stronger would you say the squad is this season after the summer changes?
Damaris Egurrola: That’s a difficult question. I think every year is a different year. Of course, we have more new players coming in, but last year we also had plenty of new ones.
I think it’s just adding a few other players, for a few others that are not here anymore.
For me, it’s the same at the end – we keep the same philosophy, keep the same game style, we want very offensive football.
Everyone can bring in something different.
From the new players too – they adapted really quickly and easily, so that’s great for us, to count on them directly.
How important is it to get off to a good start in the Champions League?
Egurrola: Yeah, for sure it’s very important.
We’re really excited for this day.
First game, I think it’s always important to also try to show everyone what we want – our desire – and I think we’re ready for that.
We showed that we could score many goals, in the few games we played already, but we want to keep doing this.
It’s only the beginning of the season and I think it’s a great start to a Champions League – hopefully we can do it all season long.
Where to watch: Servette v OL Lyonnes Wednesday 23 Sept, 17.45 BST on Disney+ in the UK and Europe.
Check here for details and other regions: https://wheretowatch.uefa.com/
Photos: UWCL, OL Lyonnes, Servette, Instagram, Helen M Jerome
