It’s a mix of euphoric disbelief and a feeling of not so quiet revenge: France celebrates the double presence of its football in the semi-finals of the Champions League quite exuberantly. That had never happened before, so it was a historic premiere. Which is why it has never happened before: two French and two German clubs among the last four – the handle pot, negotiated on the main political, but not footballing axis of Europe. And: For the first time since 1991 there is no English, Spanish or Italian team in the final quartet of the premier class. At that time the competition was still called the European Champions Cup.
Nevertheless, one wonders, especially with semi-finalists Lyon, why things are going so well. Until now, it had always been believed that the cancellation of Ligue 1 due to Corona had put the French clubs at a disadvantage: Almost without match practice on the European stage, while all opponents were warm, it seemed like a suicide mission. Olympique Lyon were also the club that had complained the most about it, and that was no wonder: the closed league ended up in seventh place. President Jean-Michel Aulas spoke of an unheard-of injustice and threatened to go to justice. Now it looks as if the break was a small blessing despite all the misfortune.
In the quarter-finals against Manchester City, the French ran a lot more and easier than the English, which was not only due to the playground: 114.8 kilometers in total against 105.7 kilometers. It was as if there was a man more on the pitch at OL, wrote Progress, the in-house newspaper of the Lyonnais. Paolo Rongoni, Lyon’s Italian fitness trainer, is being interviewed everywhere. He said that they started training in June, initially only working on strength for a long time, then gradually working on the rest – a program like before the start of the season. With every further game, the performance increases. The effect is obvious.
French club football deserves a grade of respect in Lisbon
The line of argument of club boss Aulas is a little inconvenient, but he steadfastly defends himself against the thesis of the luck-bringing loss of championship. Because he has another. The players, he said after beating City, had drawn their strength from injustice. The anger at the government and at the association as the sole motivation? This is of course a joke, it also makes the merits of his team unnecessarily small. After all, Lyon countered Pep Guardiola’s ensemble, literally and ideally-tactically, and you couldn’t expect that.
Perhaps the French benefited from the fact that they only had to do it once. Lyons sporting director Juninho, an old size of the club, happily admitted self-critically that the mode helped the underdog. It would have been much more difficult with the second leg.
Nevertheless, French club football deserves a grade of respect in Lisbon. “Farmers League” is what many critics abroad call Ligue 1: Farmers League. Often rightly. The Parisian writes that the farmers are now ready for the harvest. “Everyone thinks Bayern have the title for sure. But we wouldn’t bet our wages on it.” Speaking of the farmers league: Kylian Mbappé, the PSG striker, tweeted after Lyon’s triumph: “Farmers League” – plus the emoticon of a laughing clown.
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