Maitland-Niles, Cherki et Fofana (OL) : Photo UEFA
With the arrivals of Rayan Cherki, Alexandre Lacazette, Malick Fofana and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, the face of OL completely changed at the hour mark. To the point of having believed in victory.
For those who were still wondering if certain usual replacements could come and stand up to the traditional incumbents, the answer was simple against Hoffenheim (2-2): no. At present, the difference in level between the ordinary eleven and the one lined up on Thursday evening is far too great. The players launched for this 4th Europa League meeting were certainly not in the best condition, but there is a good gap. You only have to see the impact of the quadruple change made in the 62nd minute to understand it.
Hoffenheim even quickly understood it with this equalization ofAbner (66th), rewarding Lyon's more striking desire. “It's certain that the entrants have a lot of qualities. I especially know the talent of Rayan Cherki, with whom I played as a junior. We tried to limit the damage, but with such players, all teams can have evil in the face, said Valentin Gendrey after the match. Hence our satisfaction with this draw. We continued to play our game, but the two goals after these changes prove that there is a difference.”
“Higher coordination”
Like Alexandre Lacazette more involved than the previous matches and rewarded with a goal, theOL once again showed a double face in a meeting. This is an evil that has unfortunately persisted for some time. However, Pierre Sage found an explanation for this much more positive momentum during half an hour. “They have a higher level of coordination, which allows the team to produce a more efficient game. In the first year, we saw that we were less coordinated, often in the same calls.” Perhaps a lack of automation with so many changes at once?
