Supporters of Olympique Lyonnais (OL) have been waiting for this for almost six months. Since May 27 and a victory against Reims in front of its home crowd (3-0), Lyon has not managed to win in an official match. An eternity for a historic club in the French championship, accustomed to European competitions. Difficult to say that this victory against Rennes (1-0), on Sunday November 12, finally launched the Rhone season, but the faces of Lyon at the final whistle showed immense relief.
To achieve their first success, the Lyonnais, who have been in great difficulty in the game since the start of the season, needed a little help from destiny. He arrived in the fifth minute of the match when referee Stéphanie Frappart sanctioned Rennais Guéla Doué with a red card. Guilty of an uncontrolled sole on Nicolas Tagliafico’s shin, the young Ivorian defender left his partners with ten for the rest of the match.
But Fabio Grosso’s men had the greatest difficulty in achieving their domination. To the point that Jake O’Brien’s goal (1-0, 67th) was actually Lyon’s only big opportunity in this match. Strangely alone at the far post, the Irish defender came to finish Sael Kumbedi’s perfect cross with a header. Starting for the fifth time in a row after a start to the season spent on the bench, the former player from Molenbeek, in Belgium, is one of the rare satisfactions for Lyon in recent weeks.
“This victory will sound like a new beginning.”
If the Lyonnais were not really dangerous in this meeting, the Rennes were not sharp enough either to hope to return to the game. Little helped by the red card and fatigue linked to the Europa League match three days earlier (3-1 victory against Panathinaikos), the Rennais woke up too late.
Lonely in the area, Arthur Theate (85th) sent his attempt over the Lyon goal and Amine Gouiri missed a face-off in added time to try to deprive his former club of pocketing their first three points. “This expulsion is very frustrating because we had prepared well for this match,” said Rennais Bruno Santamaria on Prime Video, “but I am not worried about us. » Rennes is, for the moment, unable to put the same intensity into its European matches and in Ligue 1. The Breton club is in thirteenth place in the ranking.
Still last and five points behind Strasbourg – first non-relegation – the OL players celebrated this first success at length with their supporters who came in large numbers to Brittany. After these minutes of joy which the Lyonnais had not tasted for several months, Maxence Caqueret told the broadcaster that he was “very happy after this complicated match which sounds like a new start”, and relieved to “have been solid at the end of part to maintain this score advantage”.
