Olympique Lyonnais, temporarily back in sixth place tied with Rennes (5th, 37 points) and five lengths from Aiglons (3rd), must follow up with a trip to Lens and the reception of Lille opponents ranked behind him.

These deadlines will lead Lyon to the end of February, the moment chosen by its president Jean-Michel Aulas to take stock of the sporting situation with always the objective of reaching the podium at the end of the season to find the Champions League.

For the first time this season, the Rhodaniens delivered a full match and above all without being caught in the score.

In the first leg, in Nice, OL, which showed great control, notably led 2-0 before conceding three goals in the last ten minutes to finally lose 3-2.

Positive start to the year

With this successful performance, they reacted well after losing to Monaco (2-0), under fire from critics, and their record for 2022 thus remains rather positive with only one defeat for four victories and a draw against PSG. (1-1).

The contribution of the two winter recruits, Romain Faivre, on the right wing, and Tanguy Ndombélé in the middle as well as the return of the CAN, of Karl Toko Ekambi brought real added value and rebalanced the team.

Niçois Melvin Bard and Lyon striker Moussa Dembéléau during their opposition to Décines-Charpieu, February 12, 2022 OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE AFP

Peter Bosz has abandoned his 3-4-2-1 system to return to 4-2-3-1 where the best players play in their preferred position, notably with Lucas Paquet playing as playmaker in support of the center forward, Moussa Dembele.

He had also chosen to dismiss his German central defender, Jérôme Boateng, whom he had helped recruit last summer, for a behavioral problem, it seems.

After the Brazilian Marcelo in August and whose contract was recently terminated so that he could join Bordeaux, this is the second time that the Dutch technician has taken this type of disciplinary decision.

Boateng's performance not having made him essential, this choice did not ultimately disrupt his training with Thiago Mendes in central defense where he was associated with young Castelo Lukeba.

The latter, still very solid, obtained an entry penalty by pushing Justin Kluivert to commit a hand fault.

Dembélé was thus able to open the scoring (8) after his first attempt was canceled by the referee when Paquetà entered the area illegally.

The collective control of the Lyonnais was total and goalkeeper Walter Benitez repelled a shot from Toko Ekambi (30) while Amine Gouiri pushed back on the line a header from Thiago Mendes (41).

Toko Ekambi brought the score to 2-0 in the second half at the conclusion of a great collective action and taking over a pass from Ndombélé (52).

At the end of the game, Benitez again intervened well in front of Tino Kadewere who had just entered (77) and on two strikes from Houssem Aouar (86) and Paquetà (90).

The Lyonnais easily dominated OGC Nice at Décines-Charpieu on February 12, 2022 OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE AFP

For their part, the people of Nice went completely through.

They only managed to shoot once on goal, by Jordan Lotomba, an attempt stopped by Anthony Lopes (76).

While they remained on a good qualification for the Coupe de France at the expense of Marseille (4-1), on Wednesday, they conceded their second consecutive defeat in the league after that recorded at home on February 6 against Clermont (1-0).

It hadn't happened at the Gym for a year, in February 2021 for three losses in a row.

© 2022 AFP