Olympique Lyonnais will not play in the Champions League: OL were eliminated in the second leg after their defeat (2-1) against Fenerbahçe on Wednesday August 26 in their Groupama stadium after a completely unsuccessful match. The Istanbul club had not played in the C1 since the 2008/2009 season.
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In the first leg, in Istanbul on August 18, the score of parity (1-1) preserved the chances of the two teams. But OL were unable to take advantage of home advantage on the return leg and will return to the Europa League. The origin of this failure took shape at the end of last season.
Two days before the end of the championship, Lyon had climbed to third place in Ligue 1, qualifying directly for the Champions League. Unfortunately, OL lost 2-1 in Toulouse then 4-0 at home against a diminished Lens to fall to fourth place. This position forced him to compete in the C1 play-off in August, shortening his preparation phase while the squad also had to manage the effects of the transfer window.
Impact on the end of the transfer market
Lyon therefore failed to overcome this pitfall after eliminating Sparta Prague in the 3rd preliminary round, and this failure will have an impact on the end of the transfer market.
The Belgian attackers Malick Fofana and Czech Pavel Sulc are the elements with the highest market value and now have a good chance of leaving Lyon before September 1 to respond to the delicate financial situation of the club, still under the surveillance of national and European authorities.
Against Fener, Olympique Lyonnais was unable to impose the intensity necessary to bring down their opponent who, on the contrary, proved opportunistic to score two goals before half-time in four minutes.
Muriqi opened the scoring by victoriously resuming his header, on a cross from the left wing of Ogüz insufficiently attacked by Ainsley Maitland-Niles, repelled by goalkeeper Dominik Greif (24th). Maitland-Niles then, on a corner from Mason Greenwood, was beaten in his duel with Archie Brown, who headed his team’s second goal (28th).
The Lyonnais were not very dangerous
At the start of the second half, Fenerbahçe could have obtained a penalty for a handball by Moussa Niakhaté, but the video assistance spared the Lyonnais (47th) before Loïs Openda narrowly missed the recovery of a cross delivered from the left wing (50th).
Clearly beaten in the duels and particularly in the midfield, the Lyonnais were not very dangerous. OL could still have scored following a corner, Muriqi deflecting the ball onto Ederson’s post (35th) who then diverted a good, long shot from Tyler Morton (41st).
Fofana, however, reduced the gap by volleying a cross delivered from the left by Maitland-Niles (61st), before two goals were denied to the Lyonnais, to Openda for offside (64th) then to Kaïl Boudache for a prior foul by Zachary Athekame on Brown (71st).
For its part, Fenerbahçe could have scored a third time by better exploiting several counterattacks. After the final whistle, several individuals from the south corner attempted to invade the field, effectively repelled by the stewards, while the provocations of Frenchman Matteo Guendouzi led to a scuffle between players from the two clubs even in the locker room tunnel.
With AFP
