With a show like that, Ligue 1 could sell itself more easily. Olympique Lyonnais (OL) won its first victory of the season on Friday, August 30 at home, at the end of a stunning second half.
Trailing 3-1 after an hour of play, Lyon beat Strasbourg (4-3) thanks in particular to a double from Gift Orban, a substitute at kick-off in this opening match of the 3e championship day.
Entered at 59e In a minute, replacing Georges Mikautadze, Orban acrobatically took over a cross delivered from the left wing by Alexandre Lacazette to equalize at 3-3 (64e) before victoriously heading in a cross, again from the left, from Malick Fofana, who came on at the same time as him, to finally give OL the lead (4-3, 72e).
Earlier, Ainsley Maitland-Niles had put Olympique Lyonnais back on the right track by reducing the gap to 3-2 after following up well on a shot from Lacazette which hit the crossbar (61e).
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Maitland-Niles then redeemed himself well. He had, before that, been involved in the second and third Strasbourg goals. At first, he was beaten by Andrey Santos who headed in a cross from Dilane Bakwa (2-1, 48e) before losing a ball at the halfway line in front of Caleb Wiley, who alerted Emanuel Emegha in depth. The latter then won his duel with goalkeeper Lucas Perri to make it 3-1 (58e).
A long inefficiency
Racing, 7e of the standings while waiting for the other matches of the day, had opened the scoring from the start through the Swede Sebastian Nanasi on receiving a cross from the right by Bakwa taking advantage of the misses of Duje Caleta-Car and Clinton Mata (1-0, 3e).
The Alsatians, too technically febrile, were unable to maintain their various advantages against a willing OL team but displaying too many inadequacies in midfield. The Rhone team, who temporarily move up to 11e rank, were also ineffective for a long time in the finishing zone, like the interventions of goalkeeper Karl-Johan Johnsson in front of Lacazette (11e) ou Mikautadze (23e45 + 1).
Johnsson also turned a header from Moussa Niakhaté onto the bar (30)e) before losing to a shot from Corentin Tolisso, who equalized (1-1) after a first attempt from Lacazette on the post at the very end of the first period (45 + 2).
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“A meeting with ourselves”
This first victory of the season for OL eases some of the pressure that was starting to weigh on the club after two early defeats in Rennes (3-0) and against Monaco (2-0). It will allow them to get through the international break more calmly before traveling to Lens during the weekend of September 14.
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“We have details to sort out, but above all we had a meeting with ourselves.said Lyon coach Pierre Sage at a press conference. It was important to meet up because we had gotten a bit lost.”
This Friday also allowed Olympique Lyonnais to complete its transfer window with the arrivals of defender Warmed Omari and striker Wilfried Zaha, loaned respectively by Rennes and Galatasaray, while midfielder Orel Mangala is loaned to Everton and striker Mama Baldé transferred to Brest while waiting for the recruitment on loan of Galatasaray striker Wilfried Zaha.
But make no mistake: the rather low level of the match, with many approximations on both sides, but spectacular in its number of goals, should not mask the weaknesses of OL, who have already conceded eight goals in three days. Lyon will have to seriously raise their overall level to assume their objectives of fighting for the top of the table by aiming for the Champions League while being ambitious in the Europa League.
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