Malick Fofana lors d'OL – Besiktas (Photo by Maxime Gruss / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP)
Asked about the absence at kick-off of the usual starters at Hoffenheim, Pierre Sage clearly showed that the derby was OL's priority objective. Even if it means doing without Alexandre Lacazette or Rayan Cherki.
At the start of the week, we were alerted to this excitement around the derby which almost made us forget that theOL had a European trip to play on Thursday. Get to Hoffenheim should serve as an objective to best prepare for the arrival of Saint-Étienne, but also to ensure their rear in this Europa League. There was certainly this draw (2-2) which did not move the Lyonnais forward, but for those who were wondering about the order of priorities in this two-match week, the answer was quite clear: the derby clearly influenced Pierre's decisions Sage and he did not hide it.
“These changes are with the idea of preparing our match on Sunday (against Saint-Etienne in Ligue 1, Editor's note) by ensuring that our players can continue in 72 hours, confided the coach at a press conference. In this sense, I could only give them, in my opinion, half an hour so that they are in a state of maximum freshness on Sunday and so that we can compete in our derby with maximum resources at our disposal.”
Players outside the group promoted to starters
In fact, see Pierre Sage performing rotations was not surprising. When thinking of the derby, the supporters logically imagined Georges Mikautadze start the meeting in place of Alexandre Lacazette For example. What they surely did not imagine concerned this XXL turnover, including the tenure of a Rémy Descamps or those of Saël On the bed a poison Orbanleft out of the group last weekend. Within a minute, the strategy could have been a winner. Finally, these pre-match choices logically raise a question for a European Cup match.
