Lyon died tonight and so did their hopes of winning their first-ever European Cup. At the end of a frustrating match, like these two matches counting for the quarter-finals and of its season, Olympique Lyonnais lost heavily at home, Thursday, April 14, against West Ham (0- 3) and thus said goodbye to the Europa League. Farewell also to a tempting end to the season in the event of qualification for the last four. The Lyonnais will finally have only their eyes to cry. And will be able to blame themselves because they are the first responsible for this elimination against an affordable West Ham team.
Groupama Stadium and its 50,000 white-hot supporters were silenced when Hammers defender Craig Dawson opened the scoring from a corner (38th, 1-0). Six minutes later, just before the break, Declan Rice took advantage of a full-throttle recovery from Emerson to double the lead (44′, 2-0). The Lyon players are knocked out standing.
These two goals in less than ten minutes follow a hollow that started half an hour into the game, on an action as innocuous as a corner conceded after a disagreement between Jason Denayer and Castello Lukeba. The Lyon building has become rickety.
For thirty minutes, OL largely controlled the game. Only missed the finish, a constant at OL this season. Karl Toko Ekambi hit the post (5th), Moussa Dembélé then Houssem Aouar (11th) showed clumsiness, not to mention the hot situations not materialized by the Lyon players, which should have made the difference.
5 – Declan Rice has scored five goals in all competitions for West Ham this season, as many as he had scored in his previous five seasons combined for the club. Evolving. pic.twitter.com/5hBv5JRKkF
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 14, 2022
As the minutes and missed opportunities went by, OL seemed to be irretrievably headed for the fall, like too many times this season. The second period did not even allow the Lyon supporters, the end-to-end support, to believe it. Jarrod Bowen, already a scorer in the first leg, condemned the Lyonnais definitively as soon as they returned from the locker room (48th, 3-0).
The combined entries of Lucas Paqueta and Tetê did not change anything and the second period was a long crossing of the desert for OL except for a strike from Malo Gusto repelled by Alphonse Aréola (69th).
Lyon could have qualified for the semi-finals against a West Ham team who rested on the outward and return legs on a counter game and an impressive Michail Antonio. In London, the Lyonnais had played a whole half-time at eleven against ten, conceding a gag goal without managing to win (1-1).
Lyon, so successful in the Europa League since the start of the season, undefeated in this competition, has returned to its bad habits in the championship where it is in a very disappointing 10th place. Lyon had staked everything on this European Cup to seek European qualification. It will finally be necessary to achieve a feat in Ligue 1 to scratch a few places.
Aouar was whistled on his exit (70th), “Move your c…” came down from the stands at the end of the match and no leader emerged this evening to raise their voices as OL sank, not to mention the anger of the supporters at the end of the match. What about Peter Bosz, who had an immunity totem thanks to this course in the Europa League? In Lyon, the end of the season is likely to be very long and painful.