Clearly, Olympique Lyonnais is clearly becoming disillusioned in March. After its elimination in the Coupe de France against Lens two weeks ago, Paulo Fonseca’s team is now leaving the Europa League. After the draw in the first leg (1-1), Celta de Vigo came to spoil the party this Thursday evening at Groupama Stadium on the return leg (0-2).
Weighed down by injuries at the moment, OL shot themselves in the foot with the red card received in the 19th minute by Moussa Niakhaté, penalized for a slightly high sole, and decidedly unhappy this week after the Morocco-Senegal controversy.
The Gones, who had not shown much at 11 against 11, logically suffered numerically inferiority. Dominik Greif pushed back the deadline in the first period (23rd, 29th, 36th). And OL finally cracked on an action coming from their right flank (that of young Steeve Kango), concluded by Javier Rueda (0-1, 61st).
Bad evening for OL, who now only have the championship
Fonseca played his part by launching his players returning from injury (Sulc and Moreira, then Fofana), even if it meant taking out a rather uninspired Endrick. But the appearance of the match did not change (35% possession, 4 shots, only 1 on target), and the evening ended sadly, with a second goal from Ferran Jutgla (0-2, 90th+2) and a second red card for the incorrigible Nicolas Tagliafico (90th+6).
Thus ends OL’s European campaign, which began with fanfare with this first place at the end of the group stage. The momentum of the Rhone residents is clearly broken, with this seventh consecutive match without a victory. There is only Ligue 1 left to play, which will lighten the schedule for a team that is running out of steam, and which will have to find its way back to Europe through the championship.
