Played at the opening of the round of 16 of the competition, Wednesday March 9, a day before the usual meeting in the Europa League, this Porto-Lyon had a taste of the Champions League. The victory acquired after a solid performance (1-0) speaks volumes about the objectives of the Rhone club in the competition. OL are now planning the quarter-finals.
When it comes to the knockout phase, the club of Jean-Michel Aulas knows how to do it. Semi-finalists of the C1 in 2020, of the C3 in 2017, OL faced FC Porto, quarter-finalists of the last Champions League, in their Estadio do Dragao stadium. The Portuguese lair remained a bad memory for the Lyonnais, with an elimination in 2004, in the quarter-finals of the C1, against the team of José Mourinho who seemed unplayable at the time.
Sergio Conceiçao’s Porto are much more maneuverable, even if they haven’t lost in 53 games in the Portuguese league. On a sodden lawn, battered by downpours for a good three hours before the start of the match, OL mastered their subject for a good part of the match, especially during the start of the two halves.
If the attackers played the intermittent part of the show this evening, José Maria Martinez Sanchez who took all the light in this meeting, especially in the second half. The referee of the meeting did not only make friends among the 26,309 spectators present and one can understand why. On the one hand, in the last moments of the match, Martinez Sanchez had recourse to video arbitration to cancel the equalizer in the dying seconds of Chancel Mbemba for an offside (90 + 5th).
Very strong performance of the #teamOL who won at the Dragon Stadium against a difficult FC Porto team to maneuver #UEL
RDV Thursday, March 17 (9 p.m.) at @GroupamaStadium for the return match!#FCPOL 0-1 pic.twitter.com/ipgRVmv4el
— Olympique Lyonnais (@OL) March 9, 2022
But it was twenty minutes earlier that the Spanish referee provoked the ire of the Dragoes. After designating the penalty spot for a hand from Lucas Paqueta – who had hit the ball with his thigh before – deafening whistles greeted the Spanish referee’s decision to give up (64th).
Before canceling a penalty that the whole stadium had seen, Martinez Sanchez had also refused a goal at Olympique Lyonnais for an offside that no one had identified. The VAR this time came this time to validate the goal scored by Lucas Paqueta (59th) for Lyon, on a marvelous delivery from Moussa Dembélé.
The result is logical given the balance of forces. OL dominated this round of 16 first leg. Lyon could even have started with more than a goal lead if Toko-Ekambi (38th), Dembélé (11th, 50th, 53rd) and Paqueta (54th) had found the net.
The Lyon opportunities existed, but those of the Portuguese too. They lacked precision (13th, 48th, 83rd, 85th) or will have come up against Anthony Lopes, well helped by a great Castello Junior Lukeba, who once again answered present (12th, 32nd).
By becoming the second French club, after Nantes in 1971, to win on FC Porto, OL hit hard. Better, his performance meets the expectations of the club, which aims for the final victory in the competition. Ninth in Ligue 1, Lyon knows that the winner of the Europa League is granted a place for the next Champions League season. To achieve this, it will first be necessary to reach the quarter-finals, finishing the job on March 17 at home.