Lyon opened up their UEFA Europa League campaign with a win and a fifth clean sheet in their opening six games of the 2025-26 season. It was a tense game with few clear-cut opportunities for either team, but Lyon dominated the possession and won it with a wonder strike from USA international midfielder Tanner Tessmann in the 75th minute. It was his second winning goal for the club in the space of six days, following his goal against Angers at the weekend.
Lyon fielded a much changed team from the Angers fixture, with Maitland-Niles, Tessmann and Merah being rested whereas captain Corentin Tolisso was suspended due to his red card in the defeat at Old Trafford in the same competition last April. In came Ruben Kluivert and Mathys De Carvalho, both making their first starts for the club, as well as Tyler Morton and Pavel Šulc.
Utrecht were quick out of the blocks, forcing Dominik Greif to make his first save in the fourth minute when a shot from outside the box deflected off Morton and looped towards the top corner. They had another good chance from a corner kick moments later when the ball was flicked on by Mike van der Hoorn and narrowly evaded his centre-back partner Nick Viergever, who was following in for a tap-in at the far post.
Lyon soon settled into their rhythm after that ropey start and began to exert a measure of control on proceedings. However, they didn’t really threaten the Utrecht goal until after the interval. Their first chance of note came from a corner on the right, which was flicked on by Niakhaté to where Kluivert was attacking the far post. The Dutch defender almost opened the scoring against his former club as he stooped to head it back across goal, but he was denied by an outstretched arm from Utrecht’s Greek goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas.
A flurry of substitutions by Lyon manager Paulo Fonseca in the 65th minute changed the game in their favour. On came Maitland-Niles, Ghezzal, Tessmann and Moreira. Incredibly, the four of them combined for the goal some ten minutes later. Maitland-Niles fed Moreira down the left wing, where his run had taken him in behind the Utrecht defence. He cut the ball back across the box to Ghezzal, who laid it off the Tessmann, advancing from central midfield. The American struck the ball as sweetly as he’s ever done before, firing it into the top corner past a helpless Barkas from twenty-five yards out.
Moreira’s pace continued to cause problems for the home side and he tested Barkas again in the 85th minute before Utrecht created a great chance for an equaliser late on. The ball fell to Ivory Coast international striker Sébastien Haller on the edge of the six-yard box, but he couldn’t sort his feet out in time and only managed a tame lunging prod straight into the arms of a relieved Dominik Greif in the Lyon goal.