The 124th duel between OM and OL, which ended in an incredible Marseille victory in the final moments, is already leaving its mark on the cheeks of the Lyonnais. The group’s ability to react, players and staff alike, will be scrutinized in a context that is furiously reminiscent of the 2023-2024 vintage.
An OL-OM very often sows the seeds of the rest of the season: this was true in the hours “after” February 4th when OL, a narrow winner (1-0) in a difficult period, had started a series of 13 matches including 10 victories. The beginning of a fantastic comeback concluded in May with a fine 6th place synonymous with Europe.
What will happen to OL’s incredible debacle this Sunday against their rivals Marseille (2-3), despite being reduced to 10 men in the 5th minute? Lyon’s attitudes in the coming days and weeks will be particularly closely observed to understand what this 2024-2025 season will be made of.
Players marked and stunned
Eagle Football’s global director of football Michael Gerlinger, who comes out of the locker room with his head down, just behind Matthieu Louis-Jean, the director of recruitment, who follows him with a blank stare. The furtive passage of two OL managers in front of the mixed zone where the journalists are set up says a lot about the atmosphere of this post-match.
It is an entire club that is marked by a scenario as cruel on this Sunday, September 22, 2024 as it had been happy on many occasions during the “miracle” of the first half. In the locker room, the players compete in sad and dejected faces, when coach Pierre Sage takes the floor to remobilize everyone. But was he heard, as in the heads replay in loop these significant seconds, at 11 against 10 what is more?
“It’s necessarily inaudible,” imagines a close friend of the staff.
No player spoke in the cathedral silence of the dressing room. Logically, the night will not be completely restorative. “You can imagine what a night after a defeat is like, so this one,” is all one player replied. Fortunately, the recovery session is scheduled for late afternoon, just after the official photo where they will have to pose with a smile in the very theatre – the stands and the corridors of the Groupama Stadium – where the match had its worst ending less than 24 hours ago.
Defeated in added time after leading 11 against 10, producing 22 shots and obtaining (and missing) a penalty, against an opponent who usually leaves the Rhône empty-handed (only one win in 18 matches since 2007 until this Sunday evening), OL has a hangover on this Monday morning.
The Top of After Foot: Daniel Riolo: “It’s crazy what OM did, but Lyon, it’s unbearable!” – 22/09
The release of Rayan Cherki
As soon as the match was over, Rayan Cherki spoke out strongly. “It’s a disgrace,” he said. “They’ve been down to ten since the 5th minute. We’ve been leading here for years and years and we’re just falling back. All the time. Again. The match is going by, we have 3,500 chances, but despite that, we’re just falling back. When we’re leading, we’re going to have to bury the teams that come to play here.”
He’s “doing Rayan”, comment in chorus the group’s regulars with two schools of thought. The first does not appreciate its acidity: “it’s incomprehensible to exonerate oneself like that. No one can understand his reaction. It’s ‘me, me, me’. With this outing, he exonerates himself. It’s a disaster”. The second, more calmly, underlines its “healthy” aspect: “he says what he thinks and everyone should have that in mind to rebel”.
Jordan Veretout spends a few minutes (of reflection) later and refines his feeling, more collective. “Disappointed, frustrated, angry, because you don’t have the right to lose this match. When you play 11 against 10 throughout the match, and you have the chance to lead, you have to know how to kill the match. It’s hard because in the second half, they come three times in our camp and they score three goals. So it’s a professional error tonight.”
At a press conference, Pierre Sage put things back in perspective. “I don’t really feel ashamed. I think that’s a strong word, but we have good reasons to blame ourselves, that’s for sure. Conversely, I have no reason to blame the players, because they played a decent game with the will to win. In fact, tonight, I’m not disappointed to have lost, I’m disappointed not to have won. It’s more this feeling that has taken over me, on a personal level.”
Reverse Emotional Lift for Supporters
A few disappointed whistles, grumbling about the goals conceded “like U15s”, complaining about the lack of rhythm given by their players despite the numerical superiority, especially from the moment when OL leads, the 53,228 spectators left the stadium without showing any signs of irritation. As if groggy or detached. Or KO.
“I was hit hard by the scenario that other teams experienced throughout the second half of last season,” says an ultra supporter. No reversal at Brest (4-3 in the 90th+16th), or at Lille (3-4 in the 90th+4th) or more recently, against Strasbourg, on August 30 (1-3 in the 61st and 4-3, 633 seconds later).
The only indirect display of ill-will towards the management was a banner unfurled in the second half by the Kop Virage Nord, which is home to the Bad Gones, to pay tribute to a former member of their team, Anthony Lopes.
“A Gone, here since he was 8 years old, deserves better treatment. Strength to you Anthony,” we can read there.
Anthony Lopes, now number 4 in the hierarchy, did not fail to share the photo on his social networks, while his friend Baptiste Couilloud, scrum-half of Lou, did the same by posting a personal photo with a Lopes jersey among the fans. Lucas Perri, whose end of the match is intriguing, may not have seen him during the game, but this support for his former competitor does not go unnoticed both internally and externally, the echo given by social networks amplifying it.
Europa League as therapy
“Fortunately, Europe is coming back…” This sentence dropped by a member of staff gives the key and the ingredients for the rebound already expected this Thursday for the return of the Europa League to Lyon, 30 months after its last passage on April 14, 2022 in the quarter-finals of the event (0-3 and a dry elimination after a first leg, rather successful, 1-1).
“A great team never loses twice in a row,” recalls a club history paraphrasing Gérard Houllier, coach between 2005 and 2007.
The result against the Greeks, starting this Thursday at 8:45 p.m. at the Groupama Stadium, will say a lot about the reaction capacity of the group leaders and will set the tone for this return to Europe, which the institution has never sold out. Not changing its habits at this level would be a good thing against the 3rd in the Greek championship, also beaten this weekend (at Aris Salonika, 2-1) before its trip to France after a successful start to the season. Unlike OL…
