Saturday (Sunday,2am AEST) is when Lyon will again face Barcelona in the 2023-24 Champions League final. It is when a fit-and-firing Carpenter will start and,all going smoothly,also finish. She has already had some things to celebrate. In mid-April,Lyon won a third consecutive Division 1 Feminine title. On April 28 – Carpenter’s 24th birthday – the team won its Champions League semi-final tie against Paris Saint-Germain 5-3 on aggregate.
Now she will return to the scene of her first decider,the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao. “But it’s not good for us because,obviously,it’s[against Barcelona] in Spain,and I think the crowd is like 50,000,” Carpenter says. “I like that,though. It’s better. Honestly,I love it when there’s more opposition fans there because it riles me up.”