OL Europa League: Lille & Nice Eliminated

Olympique Lyonnais (OL) reached its “main objective”, according to his coach, Paulo Fonseca, by ensuring he plays at least the Europa League play-offs, thanks to a new success, Thursday December 11, in the group stage.

OL even occupy first place in the standings with five wins and 15 points – a total equal to that of last season over eight matches – after beating the Dutch Go Ahead Eagles (2-1), at Groupama Stadium, after a low intensity match of 6^e daytime. The Lyonnais only lost on the field of Betis Sevilla (2-0), during the 4^e daytime.

Thursday, the Rhone residents, with a very collective offensive animation, completely dominated a fairly weak opponent. They quickly opened the scoring thanks to the Portuguese Afonso Moreira who converted a pass from the Englishman Tyler Morton, from the 4^e minute. Go Ahead equalized by taking advantage of a clumsy phase from OL, Corentin Tolisso performing poor control on a too strong restart sent by goalkeeper Rémy Descamps from which Milan Smit took advantage (6^e). But Lyon quickly regained the advantage with a goal from Czech Pavel Sulc who victoriously took a ball pushed back by goalkeeper Jari De Busser after a shot from Ainsley Maitland-Niles (11^e). OL could have added a third goal straight away with a shot from Uruguayan Martin Satriano hitting the post.

In the second half, the Lyonnais retained possession of the ball by developing some good offensives but without success like a shot sent over the bar by Corentin Tolisso (90^e) or the attempt by Moussa Niakhaté pushed back on the line by Joris Kramer while the goalkeeper was beaten (90 + 2).

Securing at least the play-offs by ensuring a place in the first 24 (out of 36) is “a first step that we can be satisfied with”commented Paulo Fonseca. “But we want to finish in the top eight” to directly reach the round of 16, added the Portuguese technician. Two days from the end, Lyon shares the head of the ranking with the Danes of Midtjylland and the English of Aston Villa, victorious respectively over Genk (1-0) and Basel (2-1).

Lille cracks in numerical inferiority

For its part, Lille (LOSC) missed the opportunity to enter the top 8 of this Europa League by losing numerically to Young Boys from Bern (1-0), weighed down by the expulsion of Ayyoub Bouaddi in the first period. Bruno Genesio’s men dominated the first half hour but on a Bernese offensive, the 18-year-old international hopeful surrounded Alan Virginius in the area (33^e), collecting a red card. The Lille goalkeeper, Berke Özer, twice saved his team, by lying down on Chris Bedia’s overly crushed penalty before repelling Virginius’ point-blank rebound.

Offensively, Olivier Giroud did not press his backheel enough in the second half to score, Romain Perraud unscrewed his shot on a good counter-attack, and LOSC ended up cracking on a left ride from Virginius, taken at the near post by Darian Males (61^e).

Several hundred Lille supporters made the trip to the Swiss capital, although the match was not broadcast in France due to the presence on the Bernese jersey of a sponsor whose advertising is prohibited by French legislation.

With this third setback in six European matches, the Mastiffs fall from 11th^e at 16^e position, with 9 points, while Young Boys (19^e) offer themselves the first victory in their history against a French club.

Eighth loss in a row for Nice

At the bottom of the standings, OGC Nice is officially eliminated from the Europa League after its new defeat against Braga (0-1), the eighth in a row in all competitions, which constitutes a new sad record in the history of a club where nothing is going well. Last with zero points (six defeats in six days), Nice also extended its catastrophic series in the European Cup with an 18^e match without victory.

While the call for a boycott by the supporters was widely followed since the Allianz Riviera did not have more than 4,000 spectators (compared to the 12,169 announced by the club), the Aiglons offered nothing to “putting the pieces back together”as President Fabrice Bocquet requested on Sunday evening.

With the upcoming trip to Ligue 1 to Lens in mind, Nice coach Franck Haise decided to preserve many players. And the first period was catastrophic. With 133 passes made in forty-five minutes, three times less than the Portuguese, with 32% possession, the amorphous Riviera team was dominated at all levels.

Once again this season, it was Melvin Bard, disoriented captain, who was at the origin of the goal conceded. He raised directly on Bright Arrey-Mbi, who developed a school action, concluded by Victor (28^e).

After the break, the Niçois were more combative. But neither Kevin Carlos (53^e), you Isak Jansson (59^e) were not precise enough. The entries of Mendy, Clauss, whistled at each ball catch, Diop, Vanhoutte and Cho changed nothing. As a symbol, the latter, alone ten meters from the opposing goals, found a way to hit four meters above (82^e). Having left the Europa League without glory, Nice must now ensure its maintenance in Ligue 1.

Strasbourg without trembling

Finally, in the Conference League, Strasbourg, with a reshuffled team, brought back a new European success from Aberdeen on Thursday (1-0) synonymous with first place and qualification for the round of 16 even before the final day. In bad shape in Ligue 1 after three defeats in a row, the Alsatians refueled in the north-east of Scotland to bring their total to 13 units.

Coach Liam Rosenior had fielded a reshuffled team at kick-off, by constraint (Emmanuel Emegha and Abdoul Ouattara’s package) and to spare his troops before the reception of Lorient, Sunday in Ligue 1. This notably allowed Martial Godo, 22, to shine by scoring (35^e1-0), forcing the opposing goalkeeper to make good saves afterwards (53^e57^e) and obtaining a penalty, missed by Ismaël Doukouré (72^e).

Racing’s success was also written thanks to goalkeeper Mike Penders, imperial on a header from Mats Knoester (40^e) and ahead of Marko Lazetic (52^e), while the Aberdeen “Dons”, with only two points, are now eliminated.

The Strasbourgers will finish the league phase next week at Meinau against the Icelanders of Breidablik without any pressure, except that of maintaining the beautiful European history.