Held in check by Metz (1-1) on Sunday, Lyon remains bottom of Ligue 1 and has resigned itself to playing for survival.
Already at the bottom of the hole, Olympique Lyonnais continues to dig. Unable to beat promoted Metz (1-1), Sunday November 5, the Rhone residents are last in Ligue 1 with four small points. After ten games, they still haven’t won this season. OL are one of the last three teams without a victory in the five major European championships, alongside Salernitana (Italy) and Almeria (Spain). In the 21st century, 11 of the 16 teams in this situation in Ligue 1 have failed to survive, knowing that most played in a 20-team championship, offering four more games to catch up than the current elite at 18.
There is danger in the house, and Lyon only seems to understand it. “We are not going to lie to ourselves and say that we are going to play Europe”, euphemized defender Clinton Mata, on Prime Video after the meeting. The banners “Objective: maintenance” posted in the four corners of Groupama Stadium before the match set the tone on Sunday. Seven-time French champion and still semi-finalist in the Champions League three years ago, OL are now officially playing for their survival. And the timid reactions of the public on Sunday afternoon, without whistles or encouragement, illustrate Lyon’s downgrading when, in other times, a draw at home against a promoted team would have seemed like a cataclysm.
“We will have to adapt, because it is different from playing at the top of the table”, continued Mata. Being aware of the danger early enough is necessary for a team not programmed for this particular objective. In 2022, the Girondins de Bordeaux ended up experiencing relegation to Ligue 2 after hiding throughout the entire season.
“The reality is that we are last and we are playing to maintain”, assumed Maxence Caqueret. Without displaying a revolutionary speech, the midfielder named the emergency, two weeks after the intervention of his president John Textor, who did not see “no risk of relegation” in the wake of the setback against Clermont.
Textor mocked by supporters
Absent on Sunday, the American was mocked by the public (“Textor, where are you?” we heard) and gives the impression of not measuring the scale of the disaster. His seat was occupied by Tony Parker, the president of Asvel, the basketball club in the Lyon area of which OL is a shareholder. “John asked me to sit in his place, he wants me back in the board of OL”revealed the former basketball player, in an unexpected and symptomatic exit from a liner that sails by sight.
On the ground, the lack of success is glaring. OL are capable of encouraging sequences, but struggle to conclude. According to the expected goals – a statistic which measures the number of goals a team should have scored based on the dangerousness of its shots – Lyon should have won five times this season. Instead, Ligue 1’s 17th-ranked attack scored just eight goals, four fewer than their expected goals cumulative.
This was again the case on Sunday against Metz, when Alexandre Lacazette was blocked by goalkeeper Guillaume Dietsch, who was playing his very first L1 match. Conversely, the Gones fell for a goal from nowhere, scored by Ablie Jallow (77th), with a long shot with the help of the post. OL will console themselves little with this first point of the season obtained after being behind, thanks to young midfielder Skelly Alvero (84th). “Something is missing. I don’t know what, because if I knew, we wouldn’t be in this situation”admitted coach Fabio Grosso.
A schedule that promises to be tough
In this context, the public preferred to salute the Transalpine. The former Gones player (2007-2009) enjoys great popularity in Lyon, amplified after the attack he suffered during the stone-throwing of the Lyon bus in Marseille a week earlier and for which he still wears marks on the face. “I promise you that we will give everything. I hope that will be enough”he proclaimed in front of the Bad Gones ultras, who cheered him in return.
The Marseille episode appears, in the eyes of the supporters, as a mitigating circumstance in order not to undermine a traumatized group. “The ties have been even closer”, said goalkeeper Anthony Lopes before the match. But it will take more than solidarity to bounce back, especially given the schedule that awaits OL. Morbibonds against Le Havre, Lorient, Clermont and therefore Metz at home, the Rhone residents will face opponents of another caliber during the next four outings: Rennes, Lille, Lens and Marseille. This high-risk series could push the Lyonnais a little further, already six points behind Metz, the play-off, and seven from the first non-relegation place.