DEBATE – Opponents in the Coupe de France final this Saturday, Lyonnais and Parisiens are playing big. Some more than others?
Final night. Lyon challenges PSG this Saturday (9 p.m., beIN SPORTS et France 2), in Villeneuve d’Ascq, in the final of the Coupe de France. The winner will succeed Toulouse on the list of the oldest competitions and will end the 2023-24 season on a good note. Not the loser, who will miss the opportunity to stock his trophy cabinet. Who has the most to lose at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium?
Why PSG has more to lose
Logical favorites in this final against a revived Lyonnais, the Parisians have everything to lose on Saturday evening. Winning the Coupe de France would definitively confirm a successful season at the national level, after having won the title of champion of France, and after? This is ultimately logical and normal as PSG has not been competing in the same category as its competitors for years. OL is not a second-rate team (apart from Lacazette, although no Lyonnais would start in Paris) and its crazy rise in the L1 rankings gives even more spice to this meeting, but with Mbappé, Dembélé, Barcola or even Zaire-Emery, Vitinha, Marquinhos, Hakimi and Mendes, Paris must win, as always.
A defeat this Saturday would cast a veil over the general results of this Luis Enrique version of the team. Blame it on the smells of the Champions League. Semi-finalist of C1 without having faced a big name (Real Sociedad in the 8th, FC Barcelona in the quarter-final, Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals), nor even scoring a goal in 180 minutes against the 5th in the Bundesliga, Paris cannot leave one last mixed impression. Even less negative. A failure against OL and the management of the Mbappé file would undoubtedly resurface, just like the management of Luis Enrique, who grants days off to his stars so that they can enjoy the Croisette in the middle of the Cannes festival. The image would be catastrophic. On the contrary, a victory and everyone would go on vacation with a lighter mind. (comics)
Read alsoLyon-PSG: “It’s an important moment”, swears Luis Enrique before the Coupe de France final
Why Lyon has the most to lose
Relegated and even dead last for a good part of the season, Les Gones made a spectacular comeback to finish in sixth place in the Ligue 1 standings. Not just spectacular, historic! They are even already in the Europa League, whatever the result of this Saturday’s final. Knowing this, we could conclude that OL have everything to gain and PSG everything to lose. Especially since Luis Enrique’s men are necessarily the big favorites in this final, with Kylian Mbappé’s der as a bonus. Moreover, Paris taught OL a lesson during the two league confrontations, both 4-1 victories. It is not that simple.
And this because OL, the undisputed leader of French football in the early 2000s, has a golden opportunity to fill its trophy cabinet. Since the start of the Qatari era in 2011, the capital club has won nearly 80% of the national titles. OL only won two, the Coupe de France and the Trophée des Champions, in 2012. Since then? Nothing more for Lyon, despite having the second or third budget in France depending on the year. 12 years of famine. An eternity. Monaco, Lille, Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes, Toulouse, Guingamp, Saint-Etienne and Strasbourg took advantage of the crumbs left by PSG in the various competitions. Not OL. Once accustomed to caviar at every meal, Lyon supporters are on a diet. As the Parisian appetite is not about to diminish, Les Gones would do well not to let the opportunity pass. The next one might not be right away… In 10 years, no one would remember that PSG lost a Coupe de France final, even if the winds would be strong at the time. In 10 years, the people of Lyon would still be thinking about a coronation against Paris. (CR)
