At OL Park,
It’s not every week that a French club offers itself a reigning European champion. OK, we are “only” talking here about the winner of the Europa Conference League, but our football cannot look down on anyone, given its sad record (two European Cups) dating back to the 1990s. So yes, see the ‘Olympique Lyonnais winning Olympiakos indisputably (2-0) is a performance, especially when it is its first European match in two and a half years, in an OL Park sanctioned by a partial closed session , four days after an Olympico with a disastrous outcome for Pierre Sage’s players (2-3).

“It was a big disappointment on Sunday and we really came back to win that match,” summarized on Canal + Rayan Cherkiwho has scored goals and sharp interviews with broadcasters since his contract extension last week. Once again dropped after five days of Ligue 1 (14th with 4 points out of 15), OL were able to bounce back, and not only thanks to a tactical switch from 3-5-2 to 4-2-3-1, consistent pressing from the outset, and finally clinical efficiency in six minutes (from the 65th to the 71st).
The plethoric workforce, an opportunity or a headache?
“We still had the defeat against Marseille in our throats,” insists versatile defender Clinton Mata. As professional footballers and as men, we must have this pride to be vengeful. This is what we showed today: we didn’t give the opponent much hope. It’s a full match which gives us confidence. » That’s good, the Lyon club’s calendar in October may allow it to consider launching a remontada several months ahead of the miracle of the 2023-2024 season.
Toulouse, Glasgow Rangers, Nantes, Le Havre, Besiktas and Auxerre are in fact not big names in L1 and C3. This is why OL must quickly achieve a series of successes, helped by a colossal squad depth on the offensive level. The expected safe bets, Alexandre Lacazette and Georges Mikautadze, have scored zero goals since this summer?
No problem, or almost: Rayan Cherki has two goals in two appearances, while Saïd Benrahma consolidated Lyon’s success against Olympiakos (2-0, 71st) after three matches without coming into play. As for Wilfried Zaha , he offered himself an assist on Thursday for his first match in the Lyon jersey. So having eight offensive talents in its ranks cannot be summed up as a huge headache for Pierre Sage, right coach?
“ A season is very long. Each of them will have a role to play at a given moment, and perhaps eat their black bread for a period. For Saïd, this is the best answer and I hope it will give him perspective. It is important that they keep in mind the work, the hope and the desire to play. To be competitive in our three competitions, we need to be able to field fresh players. It is very important for us to have a large squad. »
“We could have gone back into the Marseille pattern”
With now 100 European matches under his belt, Nemanja Matic validates the theory of the trigger: “It was of course a difficult moment after Marseille but we showed in the Europa League that we were able to raise our heads.” Described as a “good remedy” by Pierre Sage, this initial success in the Europa League with some margin, a rarity or even an anomaly for this OL, suddenly weakened at the end of the match on Thursday. On a seemingly innocuous cross, Duje Caleta-Car found a way to place his head in the top corner… from Lucas Perri (88th)!
Our file on OL
Except that the VAR saved OL by signaling a very slight offside by center Willian at the start. Pierre Sage notes: “In a situation where there is nothing, where we protect a ball while there are two players offside, we could have plunged back into the pattern at the end of the match against Marseille”. And that, as last season screamed the ambiance of the Lyon locker room Saël Kumbedi“they are not ready, they are not ready”.