On Wednesday, OL Lyonnes will get their UEFA Women’s Champions League campaign underway, and Dutch midfielder Damaris Egurrola hopes the club can make history by winning their ninth European title.

The French giants have won the competition a record eight times and reached last season’s final, where they were beaten 4-0 by a clinical Barcelona in Oslo.

Despite dominating domestically and winning a treble, the UWCL eluded Jonatan Giráldez’s side, as it has done twice now since they last lifted the trophy in 2022.

For Egurrola, that disappointment has only reinforced the importance of another Champions League campaign, with OL Lyonnes determined to go one step further this time and win their first title since the 2021/22 season.

“I think everyone knows how special the Champions League is for us, for Lyon. I got to know it since day one when I arrived,” she said. “So every season that we start, we know our objectives, and this year isn’t any less.

“So yeah, excited for this first game, Champions League, and of course, looking forward to make a good tournament as we did last year. But of course, we’re missing also that last game that we couldn’t really bring the trophy home.”

OL Lyonnes — often hailed as the ‘Queens of Europe’ — have eight UWCL titles to their name. More impressively, the French side have double the number of European titles of their closest European competitors in Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Barcelona.

Now, their domestic dominance last season provided plenty of evidence of their quality, but their defeat to Barcelona in the final ensured their campaign ended without the European trophy they wanted most.