England international Kirby gave Chelsea the lead on 11
minutes at Kingsmeadow, finishing off a move she began inside her own half
after combining smartly with Australia forward Sam Kerr.
Sarah Zadrazil equalised with a thunderous, dipping shot
from distance that clipped the underside of the bar on its way in as Bayern
regained the upper hand in the tie.
Ji So-yun gave Chelsea a 2-1 advantage just before
half-time, steering low into the corner past an unsighted Laura Benkarth after
smacking her initial free-kick against the wall.
Danish forward Harder, who joined Chelsea at the start of
the season for a reported world-record transfer fee, grabbed the decisive goal
on 84 minutes as she glanced in a header from Jessica Carter’s free-kick.
Harder was a Champions League runner-up twice in the past
three seasons with Wolfsburg.
Kirby made sure of Chelsea’s place in the May 16 final in
Gothenburg as she rolled into an empty net with the final kick of the game to
complete a 5-3 win on aggregate.
The Blues become just the second English club to reach the
biggest match in European women’s club football after Arsenal, who won the
competition in 2007.
It will be the first Champions League final without a French
team since 2014 after Paris Saint-Germain were knocked out by Barcelona 3-2 on
aggregate.
Lieke Martens scored twice as Barcelona advanced to a second
final in three years with a 2-1 victory over PSG in the second leg of their
semi-final in Spain.
After a 1-1 draw in France last weekend, Dutch winger
Martens put Barcelona in front on eight minutes at the Johan Cruyff Stadium
with a superb curling strike.
She then ghosted in at the far post to double Barcelona’s
advantage on the half-hour, tapping in a cross from Caroline Graham Hansen.
PSG, who ended Lyon’s five-year reign in the quarter-finals,
soon pulled a goal back when Marie-Antoinette Katoto prodded in after a
goalmouth scramble from a corner.
Jenni Hermoso, the competition’s top scorer this season, and
Marta Torrejon both hit the woodwork for 2019 runners-up Barcelona in the
second half as the Spaniards held on to qualify.
AFP