Three weeks, it turns out, is a long time in the life of Ligue 1. If somebody had told you at the start of the month that after Paris Saint-Germain’s meeting with Lyon, one team would be steeling themselves for a productive winter while the other would be questioning the very direction of their campaign, you’d almost certainly have assumed that the champions would be the former and Hubert Fournier’s side would have been the latter.
Instead, it was Lyon’s young guns who left the Parc des Princes in chipper mood after the curtain came down on Sunday night’s match, with the home team whistled off by their frustrated supporters after conceding a late equaliser – and two more precious points – in a 1-1 draw.
It goes without saying that this was – again, after shelling leads at Rennes and Ajax in the last week – a PSG that were below their best, but Lyon knew exactly how to take advantage in a way that they probably wouldn’t have been able to just a few short weeks ago.
After going a goal down to Edinson Cavani’s first-half header, Les Gones didn’t panic, grew in strength as the second half progressed and fully merited Samuel Umtiti’s leveller, scored six minutes from the end of normal time. It was Lyon’s first goal at the Parc in a day over four years, and had Corentin Tolisso not ballooned over a very presentable chance a few minutes later, they probably would have handed PSG only their second home defeat in Ligue 1 since November 2012.
It was a scenario impossible to imagine on the final day of August, when Fournier’s side blew a goal lead in the last nine minutes at Metz to register a third straight Ligue 1 defeat. It came just three days after a deflating Europa League play-off exit to Romanian side Astra Giurgiu, who perhaps revealed the true extent of their pedigree in taking a 5-1 beating at Dinamo Zagreb in their opening group match.
If the implosion at Metz’s Saint-Symphorien is something that will haunt this group of players for a while yet, it was not entirely without precedent. The first leg home defeat to Astra had told on Lyon’s European hopes, with a 1-0 win in the return not enough to prevent elimination on away goals. They had held the advantage in that match too via Steed Malbranque’s stylish first-half strike, before fading badly after the break and conceding twice in the closing 19 minutes at the Gerland.
Lyon’s lack of stamina was glaring. Captain Maxime Gonalons, never shy of speaking up, did exactly that in the wake of the loss at Metz. Gonalons labelled Lyon’s pre-season physical preparation as “not adequate for the top level,” and though he was subsequently rebuked by president Jean-Michel Aulas, the 13 days of downtime allowed by the international break was used sagely. “We went back to basics,” said Gonalons in Sunday’s edition of L’Equipe, “with footing in the park at Parilly (just outside central Lyon). It was important to go back to our roots.”
It appears to be paying off. After Metz, a pair of games against Monaco and PSG looked like the calendar from hell. Instead, Lyon have pocketed four points from the games, due in no small part to their extra homework. They were able to stay with Laurent Blanc’s team despite their habitual lion’s share of possession (61% for PSG on Sunday night) and remained lucid enough to be decisive on the counter-attack. The visitors had 5 shots on target to PSG’s 3, all registered after the interval (though Arnold Mvuemba did hit the crossbar in the first half).
The youth of Lyon’s academy-heavy line-up is its distinguishing feature – the starting XI in Paris contained only two players in their 30s and six of 23 or under. So it makes sense that they should be able to have the drop on most of their rivals in an athletic sense, at least. Yet with such a long time spent without the ball against PSG, it was imperative that Fournier used his substitutes well, and he certainly did.
Yoann Gourcuff and Henri Bedimo, both returning from injury, contributed – the former managing a shot on target and a key pass in his 20-minute cameo, with the latter stretching play nicely down an under-exploited left side in only 14 minutes – but 21-year-old Clinton N’Jie was perhaps the key to Lyon snatching a result.
A pacy, direct replacement for Malbranque, he made the visitors’ formation what it should have been in the first place. Malbranque had been stationed at the tip of Lyon’s now-familiar midfield diamond, but he, Nabil Fekir and Alexandre Lacazette covered much of the same ground in the final third, as shown by the average player positions chart. N’Jie’s introduction added pace and made the natural return to Lyon’s classic 4-3-3 shape.
Lacazette facilitates that well, having extensive experience on the wing and having made plenty of good yards on the right throughout the match; 40% of Lyon’s attacks came down that side, thanks to the striker and his combinations with former PSG full-back Christophe Jallet.
N’Jie, fresh from a successful international debut with Cameroon, provided the extra impact. He forced Salvatore Sirigu into his most difficult save of the match before teeing up Umtiti for the equaliser, and it was also an N’Jie pass that gave Tolisso the chance to snatch all of the points.
Lyon’s renewed confidence even allowed Gonalons to take a bit of time out to tease the off-colour Ibrahimovic, with the pair pursuing an extended dialogue. That bravado from the skipper said it all about Lyon feeling good about themselves again. This young side has work to do to become more than an occasional irritant to the big boys, but they are at least looking fit for purpose now.
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