Olympique Lyon is back on track after a weak start to the season and is fighting its way up the Ligue 1 table. Before the duel with TSG Hoffenheim (Thursday, 9 p.m./live ticker on tsg-hoffenheim.de), coach Pierre Sage is still faced with the question of who should reliably score goals.
Only four points from the first five games – Olympique Lyon’s start to the season went badly wrong. Although the starting program for the seven-time French champions was demanding with games against Marseille (2:3), Monaco (0:2) and Lens (0:0), those responsible at Olympique were still hoping to join the top group early after a summer of record investments to belong to the league.
The last five games, however, were much more pleasing. 11 points during this period have pushed the team from the Rhône-Alpes up – Lyon is now in sixth place in the table.
In the UEFA Europa League, however, the development was the opposite: after two wins at the start against Olympiacos Piraeus (2-0) and at Glasgow Rangers (4-1), Lyon recently lost to Besiktas (0-1), but is still fully on track .
However, Pierre Sage is still missing a reliable goalscorer in his ranks. In Ligue 1, no player has scored more than three times; the 19-year-old Belgian Malick Fofana has scored five goals across all competitions. The offensive player, who moved from KAA Gent to Lyon in the winter and made his debut for the Belgian national team in October, is by no means set yet – coach Sage has too many alternatives in the offensive for that. Whether it’s the experienced Wilfried Zaha, Said Benrahma and Alexandre Lacazette, European Championship top scorer Georges Mikautadze or the top African talents Ernest Nuamah and Gift Orban – OL has outstanding width in attack. But none of these actors have yet scored reliably.
Senegal
