Three days after the important victory in Ligue 1 against Marseille (1-0), Lyon beat Lille (2-1) this Wednesday in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France. Moribund and seeming to be heading straight towards Ligue 2 in the fall, Olympique Lyonnais, after a winter transfer window which seems relevant for the moment and which has strengthened the group in all its lines, finally offers a conquering, attractive face his supporters.
The Rhone team and its new coach Pierre Sage, in post since the end of November, first on an interim basis transformed into a contract on January 11 until the end of the season, have just successively beaten Marseille (1-0) and Losc, 4th in L1.
If OL have not yet ensured their survival and are not yet openly dreaming of Europe in the event of victory in the Coupe de France, the content of their last two outings leaves the prospect of moving up the rankings. in L1 quite plausible.
For this round of 16, Sage had chosen to start Brazilian goalkeeper Lucas Perri who arrived at the beginning of January. The former Botafogo goalkeeper did very well, decisive on shots from Jonathan David (32), Adam Ounas (33), Ismaïly (37) and even Edon Zeghrova (47).
Lucky on a recovery from David sent above (43), he nevertheless had to bow on a recovery of Alexsandro’s head when receiving a free kick taken by Zeghrova, which allowed Lille to return to 2-1 (53). His overall performance could give some torment to Pierre Sage in the competition that is coming with Anthony Lopes, who has been stable since 2013 and who has one year left on his contract.
Before the Lille goal, however, OL had started the match very well with a slightly modified eleven. Sage, in his management of a week with three matches, had chosen to spare a few players like Nemanja Matic, Ernest Nuamah or Alexandre Lacazette. In addition to Perri, Orel Mangala, recruited in the transfer window, also made his debut in the middle.
Lille goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier had to intervene in front of Gift Orban and Corentin Tolisso (8, 12) but Orban, served by Rayan Cherki, opened the scoring by winning his duel with the Lille goalkeeper (40).
Cherki, who remained on the bench against OM but who this time delivered a full and collective match, dribbling wisely, brought the score to 2-0 at the start of the second half with a confused action (48th) .
However, as against Marseille, the second half was more difficult for OL, who nevertheless managed to hold their own to maintain their lead, with a good defensive withdrawal and an organization leaving little space for Lille, in the inability to give speed to their game.
Dominant at the end of the match, the Northerners were also not very precise in their actions, ultimately creating no other opportunity to equalize.