At the end, there will only be one! On Wednesday evening at Groupama Stadium, Olympique Lyonnais and Paris Saint-Germain met in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. A gala poster between two French clubs who were the only ones still in the running on the four tables. Indeed, in addition to Ligue 1 Conforama, the Gones and the Parisians are qualified for the final of the Coupe de la Ligue. They will cross swords on April 4. In the Champions League, the Parisians as well as the Rhone are at the stage of the round of 16. It therefore remained to decide between the Coupe de France. And it was the Parisians who bought the ticket for the final. However, for a long time, the Gones held the dragee high to the teammates of Kylian Mbappé.
But the turning point was Marçal’s hand in the box, which resulted in a penalty behind. The Brazilian was also sent off as his second yellow card of the game. A double penalty that practically condemned Lyon, who conceded several goals thereafter and who ultimately lost 5 to 1. On the side of Lyon, some arbitral decisions were not appreciated at all. Juninho, present in press stands, would have had lively discussions with part of the Parisian staff present. The technical director then slammed a door violently when he went to join the players in the locker room after the meeting. Rudi Garcia was given a yellow card. Then he then calmed down before going to the media to present himself at a press conference. The French technician preferred to kick in touch when talking about refereeing, which he has been doing almost all the time since his arrival on the OL bench last October.
The Gones do not digest arbitration
“I don’t think anything. I prefer not to say anything about decisions. There are times when you have to look at what has been done well. Then when you are ten against eleven against such a team, there is no more match. So this is football. Sometimes events are against you. It was played out in details and the details were not favorable to us, let’s say that like that (…) I have nothing to say on that. You will know how to write things right and objectively. Me, I prefer to emphasize how my team was very good tactically, technically and god knows when we were outnumbered, it became hard because they had an extra day of recovery, because they didn’t didn’t play during the week when we were playing an energy and mentally costly match against Juventus in the Champions League. At eleven against eleven, we showed that we could have qualified. At ten against eleven, against such a team, it becomes mission impossible. “
The only Olympique Lyonnais player to appear in the mixed zone after this defeat and elimination, Anthony Lopes made no secret of the fact that the expulsion was the turning point of the game. The porter, whose face was very closed and expressed his anger, however, did not want to say too much. “At ten against eleven, it became very complicated against a team like Paris. At 2-1, we were still hoping. Anyway, when you are a competitor, you want to return to the brand. Unfortunately, we took that third goal shortly after and it became an impossible mission (…) No, I don’t think it has broken the current dynamic. Everyone had their heads held high and went up a bit. We’re pumped up. It’s hard to go out that way ”. Touched but not sunk, OL hopes to bounce back from Sunday against LOSC, in a crucial match in the podium race.
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