Jonatan Giráldez had promised on the eve of the tie that Lyon would lean on the depth of their squad. He was as good as his word. OL Lyonnes left a host of first-choice players out for their opening Women’s Champions League fixture, and the changes barely showed. The scoreboard already read 5-0 at half-time in Geneva.

The rout started in the eighth minute, when Laia Ballesté steered a Salma Paralluelo cross into her own net under pressure from Melchie Dumornay, according to AP reporting from Geneva. Marie-Antoinette Katoto took over from there, striking in the 28th and 40th minutes and completing her hat-trick two minutes into the second half from a back-heeled Lily Yohannes assist.

Between Katoto’s second and third, Dumornay slid in a delicate chip in first-half stoppage time. The Haiti forward added Lyon’s sixth on 54 minutes. Magdalena Sobal turned a corner into her own net on 68 minutes, and Ines Benyahia rounded off the scoring in the 89th.

Giráldez trusted the whole squad, and it delivered

Giráldez had made no secret of how he planned to attack a fixture Lyon were overwhelming favourites to win. Speaking the day before kick-off, he said his priority would be to score and to create plenty of chances, and to trust the whole squad rather than lean on his strongest XI.

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“We are lucky to have a lot of quality in the squad, and we have to take advantage of it,” the Spaniard told Lyonfoot before the game.

Dumornay echoed the point after the final whistle.

“We wanted to start in the best way possible. I’m very happy because we worked a lot together for this result and to avoid conceding a goal,” the Haiti forward told AFP.

The record eight-time winners had rested a raft of regulars, and the reserves still delivered the biggest scoreline of Matchday 1.

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Barcelona open title defence with five past Paris FC

Holders Barcelona also began emphatically, beating Paris FC 5-2 with two goals from Ewa Pajor and further strikes from Kerolin, Clara Serrajordi and Caroline Graham Hansen. Chelsea saw off Austria Vienna 1-0 through an 11th-minute Wieke Kaptein finish. Roma were held to a goalless draw away at OH Leuven, where substitute Marta Pandini struck a stoppage-time penalty against the post.

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