DECRYPTION
Who would have bet, before this double confrontation five months apart against Juventus Turin, that striker Memphis Depay, defender Marcelo and coach Rudi Garcia would fly to Lisbon in the middle of August? The march seemed far too high, confinement or not, and yet: Olympique Lyonnais eliminated Juventus Turin led by a Cristiano Ronaldo still sparkling at 35 years old. This qualification for the quarter-finals of the Champions League, for the three Lyonnais mentioned above, resonates like an enhanced victory. Better: a real revenge.
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Depay, forgotten injury
It is his goal that allows Olympique Lyonnais to return to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, ten years later. With his panenka, Memphis Depay reminded everyone that at 26, he was one of the most daring strikers in Europe and a staple of his team.
Nothing was won, however, last December. Victim of a rupture of a cruciate ligament a few days before the truce, Memphis Depay was promised a very long rehabilitation. With numerous videos, the Dutchman documented his return to the highest level through the menu. Until returning for medical tests with OL, in mid-June, and starting to prepare for an unprecedented end of the season, with motivation intact. After ramping up in friendlies, the man with the lion tattoo came back at the right time. Enough, next Saturday, against Manchester City?
Honni, Marcelo hung on
Here too, we have to go back to December to perceive a radical change. After a Champions League match against Zenith Saint Petersburg, Marcelo gives a middle finger to Lyon supporters. "He is a player caught in the grip of the public. His teammates will do the punch, we are practically there," recalls Grégory Schneider, journalist at Liberation , during the debrief of Lyon's qualification on Europe 1.
"Today, it is the central pillar of the defense which made it possible to hold out and weather the storm," continues the journalist. "Like what, a player can come back and he should never be buried." Called to occupy the bench behind the Denayer-Andersen hinge in a 4-4-2 early in the season, Marcelo was almost sold after the stormy episode with the supporters. Friday evening, he assured the "leadership" and allowed the Lyon defense to repel the many attacks in Turin. To the point of wearing the captain's armband at the end of this round of 16 second leg.
Mocked, Garcia dominated Sarri
"There are some who don't like to put on young people, he puts them on!" The compliment is signed Guy Roux, still on Europe 1. Its recipient: the coach mocked by some of the Lyon supporters, who have taken the habit of displaying his face as a clown on Twitter. But Friday night, Rudi Garcia dominated Maurizio Sarri, his counterpart from Juventus Turin. By running the Bianconeri, by investing the corridors with a 3-5-2 ... His tactical choices, failing to have created the conditions for a recital, allowed his family to hold out. And to make him the first French coach to eliminate Juventus Turin in the Champions League.
"He is not a playboy, he does not come to seduce a press room, but he has results", defends the former technician auxerrois. In Europe, at least: if he took Olympique de Marseille to the Europa League final in 2018, the former AS Roma coach did not shine with Lyon this season, finishing only 9th. Will the "Final 8" allow him to find an aura that had disappeared in many of his supporters?