At the end of a sublime meeting, OL and Reims part back to back

Olympique Lyonnais comes up against the Stade de Reims! This Saturday, March 30, as part of the 27th day of Ligue 1, the Rhone club welcomed its Champagne counterpart to try to get a little closer to European places. Tenth at kick-off with four points behind their opponent from Reims, ninth, OL did not manage to achieve this mission at the end of a hotly contested match. The fight was started by the visitors, with a first opportunity to come from Ibrahim Diakité, found behind the Gones defense. But the Rémois, twice, came up against a vigilant Anthony Lopes (15th). Lyon’s response came from Ainsley Maitland-Niles, whose first strong cross was scrambled by Alexandre Lacazette. The second attempt was then blocked by a Champagne defender (27th). During this intense but aimless first act, it was then Rayan Cherki, with a shot from the right that was not wound enough, who missed the opposing target (33rd). Finally, at the end of a game of billiards following a corner in the area, Nemanja Matic, alone at the far post, crushed his volley too much, which flew over the Reims goals (45th).

Without downtime

The high pace was maintained by the 22 players returning from the locker room. It even went up a notch when Reims increased its pressure on the Rhone goal. Marshall Munesti, launched towards the surface, first saw his one-touch shot deflected at the last minute by the return of Corentin Tolisso then brushed against Lopes’ post (53rd). In the process, Valentin Atangana placed a flat foot at the end of the race at the entrance to the area which, again, was blocked to narrowly miss the target (54th). But the corner that followed finally rewarded the start of the second period for the Rouge et Blanc. Hit by Junya Ito, the latter found the head of captain Yunis Abdelhamid. The Moroccan defender’s powerful helmet shot crashed into Lopes’ right post, before returning to the feet of the happy Joseph Okumu to open the scoring from close range (55th, 0-1). Cold snap at Groupama Stadium. But not for long. Because the reaction of the Gones was not long in coming. After recovering a ball at 25 meters, full axis, Maxence Caqueret infiltrated the area before missing his face to face with Diouf, hampered at the last minute by a borderline return from a Reims defender (58th). Then, two newcomers stood out to finally shake Yehvann Diouf’s nets.

OL looks towards the Coupe de France, Reims towards Nice

From the left side, Saïd Benrahma delivered a perfect cross for Ernest Nuamah, who managed to break away from the marking to dive and score with a header (65th, 1-1). Back to back, the two teams continued their frantic pace by going blow for blow. Everyone thus had the opportunity to take the advantage in this game without downtime, like this face to face missed by a Mama Baldé launched by Corentin Tolisso (76th) or this long shot from Amir Richardson magnificently diverted by Anthony Lopes (90th). But it is back to back and frustrated that the two clubs part this Saturday evening, with the same positions as at kick-off. Before traveling to Nantes next Sunday (8:45 p.m.), Pierre Sage’s OL (10th, 35 pts) will now turn and focus on their Coupe de France semi-final against Valenciennes (L2) on Tuesday (8:45 p.m.) . For its part, Reims (9th, 39 pts), which therefore maintains the four-point gap with its evening opponent, keeps its hopes of stealing a European place before a new turning point against Nice (5th, 43 pts) next Sunday (3 p.m.).

🔚 Nos Gones share the points with Reims this evening 🤝

We’ll see you on Tuesday at @GroupamaStadium to get this place in the Coupe de France final, together! 👊🔴🔵

1-1 #OLSDR pic.twitter.com/xTkFklWryj

— Olympique Lyonnais (@OL) March 30, 2024