A magic roulette, a goal and a successful performance: Rayan Cherki soared during OL – Monaco (3-1) in Ligue 1

Even if he still has room for improvement in decision-making, the Lyonnais offered one of his most complete matches to the public at Groupama Stadium, furious that his team conceded a penalty in the first minute of play. It was especially after the break that Cherki delivered his best football.

He emerged from this match with some interesting figures: 87 balls played and 55 passes out of 68 delivered. Otherwise, he has 14 goals and 15 assists when he is already a hundred years old as a professional. All at 19 years old. “When you’re a kid you don’t imagine that you’re going to play 100 games in the club of your city“, recognized the man of the evening.

Author of a very beautiful goal in the 78th minute, Cherki was above all at the origin of the second achievement, signed by Maxence Caqueret. After a festival in the surface, following a lot of work from the same Caqueret, which he concluded with a roulette à la Zinedine Zidane (Zizou had missed an almost similar goal with Real Madrid against Valladolid in 2003/2004), Cherki lost his duel with Alexander Nübel. The German indeed released his timid shot from the left.

The Lyonnais recognized it, he procrastinated too much when concluding what could have been the goal of the season. On the lookout, Maxence Caqueret scored from the left in the Monegasque goal and allowed this class action to have a positive outcome, failing to have the one it deserved.

“It’s not every day that we do roulette on a defender who tackles, it’s true that it’s nice even if I would have liked to score, because it would have been a very nice goalrecognized the Lyonnais at the microphone of Prime Video. Arrived at the strike, I hesitated between three choices: the dive, the pointed, the side. In the end, I did all three, it didn’t work but I’m happy for my friend Maxence. It’s instinct that takes over in the surface.“

White – Cherki: thank you “president”!

Cherki’s rise to prominence this season coincided with the arrival of Laurent Blanc on the OL bench in October 2022. Often critical of his player, but protective, the technician has a special connection with Cherki that he permanently installed as holder. The player admitted that he found in White a mentor at the microphone of Prime Video.

“We have a relationship that I have never had with another coach. Of course I accept it (when he criticizes it). I don’t know why, but people put the label of the guy who has no demands on me, when I have a demand, just as hard as the one the coach has with me. I don’t know why they say so much about me like that. I do everything to prove them wrong. But when the coach speaks, I take everything literally and I want to show him that when he says things less well, he was wrong.”

The two men also met in the bays of Groupama Stadium while Blanc in turn gave an interview to the broadcaster of the French Championship. “He should have scored three goals. He scored one and he’s happy…“, smiled the technician. A little earlier in the evening, during the match, he had passed a friendly soap to his protege. “He said to me: ‘You’re stupid, on this one, you’re supposed to put the goal of the year’ “, revealed Cherki at the microphone of PVS.

Although demanding, the “President” also praised the performance of his player, but also his progress on the field and in the physical parameter. “Rayan, we know, he has talent. He has to be physically fit. He had a bit of a difficult time because it was the first year he really played as a starter that he started matches and not started. It took a little bit to digest everything. He responds well physically, he is solid, he is progressing. Everyone was very good, the whole team was very good.”

With an inspired Cherki, but not only, Lyon produced fluid and instinctive football. And the whole thing pleased Blanc. “As I said at half-time: ‘We will win by playing’. And we won through play. I’m very proud of my players, that’s how I want them to play and how I think they should play. I hope we will do this kind of matches again and the fans I think will enjoy watching their team. They have to have fun“Pleasure. Emotions and joy too. Cherki is a real distributor of all that at the same time.