Assured of its place in the Europa League play-offs, Olympique Lyonnais is aiming for direct qualification for the 8th final in José Mourinho’s fiery Fenerbahçe stadium on Thursday.
With a victory, OL could secure a place among the top eight, if the other results of the evening are favorable to them. John Textor’s club is already certain to continue the adventure at least in the play-offs. With 13 points, he can no longer finish beyond 24th place.
But the “Gones” are not in good shape. Since a defeat at Paris Saint-Germain (3-1) on December 15, they have only beaten one National 2 club (4th division) in the Coupe de France, Feignies-Aulnoye (2-1), and the last in Ligue 1 Montpellier (1-0), on a lucky own goal at the end of the match.
“What we remember is that Liverpool and Salah are the best in the world”
-Video credit: Eurosport
OL fell in the standings in L1 by losing at Brest (2-1) and slipping against Toulouse (0-0) and hit rock bottom against an N3 club, Bourgoin-Jallieu, in the Cup (2-2, 4 tab to 2). Coach Pierre Sage was even able to read in the press the name of Paulo Fonseca to replace him if he does not get things back on track.
But in C3, his team is very well placed before entering Sukru-Saracoglu, the 50,000-seat volcano of the “Fener”, ready to roar against Lyon as it would against the “Lions” of Galatasaray, one of its greats rivals from Istanbul, or against Besiktas, the three clubs being involved in the Europa League this season. In four confrontations in the past, at the start of the 2000s, OL won four times against Fenerbahçe.
