It’s often the same story. When you drag yourself to last place, everything turns against you. This is the cruel scenario experienced by Montpellier in Lyon. Jean-Louis Gasset’s players often pushed the Lyonnais but were punished during added time (1-0, 90th + 1) with an own goal. Montpellier didn’t deserve that. At the final whistle, many players collapsed on the pitch, as if stunned.
Despite a very sluggish performance, the operation is nevertheless good in the ranking for Lyon. OL joins Lille in 4th place on equal points and now two points behind Monaco and OM (who play this Sunday against Le Havre).
After the pitiful (4-0) elimination in the Coupe de France at Puy (N2) before the break, the president of Montpellier Laurent Nicollin placed the players in front of their responsibilities during a meeting before their departure for Lyon on Friday morning. Téji Savanier was punished by being stripped of the captain’s armband and fined 60,000 euros for charity, after his big verbal slip-up at Le Puy.
But he was on the field at kick-off as a starter even though he was announced as a substitute. The Montpellier residents, who remained in four games without a victory in Ligue 1, showed the face expected by their management by showing themselves to be conquerors from the start. On the Lyon side, the Bad Gones team paid tribute to Lisandro Lopez, the former OL legend, who has just retired at 41.
From the 3rd minute, Jordan Ferri hits the post with a shot from 20m. Lucas Perri must then be decisive on the recovery of Al-Tamari (3rd) then the head of Omeragic (4th). Montpellier made a big start but OL gradually got back into the match and worried Benjamin Lecomte on several occasions, notably with a strike from Nuamah (40th).
Fayad misses the inevitable then scores against his side
As soon as the restart, Montpellier believes it opens the score with a recovery from Jordan Ferri (53rd). The new captain of Montpellier, trained at OL, does not celebrate his goal. But he does not hide his anger when the referee refuses him for a previous foul, after consulting the VAR.
Perfectly served by Al-Tamari, the young Khaled Fayad, 20 years old, trained in Montpellier, then missed the inevitable by sending his recovery into the clouds alone against Perri (73rd).
It was Lyon who nevertheless finished the strongest under the leadership of Rayan Cherki who tried to set things on fire after coming into play, without always making the right choices. But OL ended up cracking Montpellier during added time. After a big mix-up, Fayad, definitely very unhappy, scored against his side. A very cruel outcome for the red lantern who had finally had a consistent match.
“It smiles on us, we take it but the victory is not deserved,” said OL midfielder Jordan Veretout on DAZN. We will only remember the 3 points. We didn’t create a game, that’s not the image we should give. »
