Olympique Lyonnais won a keenly contested ‘Olympico’ at the Groupama Stadium on matchday 3 of the season to maintain their 100% record and join PSG at the top of the nascent Ligue 1 table on nine points.
The build up to the game was overshadowed by the breaking news that Lyon’s star striker (and indeed only striker), Georges Mikautadze, was being sold to Villarreal in Spain. The move was necessary in order to meet the strict financial conditions imposed on the club by the DNCG (French football’s financial watchdog), but it left Lyon somewhat blunt in attack for this fixture.
They lined up in a kind of 4-6-0 formation with Fofana and Karabec the most advanced players, cutting in from the left and right flanks respectively. Eighteen-year-old Khalis Merah was handed his first competitive start for the club in midfield.
The formation worked well initially with regards to ball retention and chance creation, but the absence of a centre-forward to finish off the moves became increasingly conspicuous as the half wore on. Bizarrely, it was the left-back, Abner Vinicius, who found himself on the end of three major chances, but his first shot from close range was straight at Marseille goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli.
A few minutes later, Abner was through one on one with Rulli and fell to the ground as he poked the ball beyond the diving ‘keeper. The referee initially blew for a penalty but it was overturned on examination by the VAR officials and Abner was cautioned for diving. Soon after, Abner did finally have the ball in the back of the net, but this goal was ruled out for an offside by Fofana earlier in the move.
Fofana had been causing havoc with his pace on the left flank and just before the half hour mark was played in behind the high Marseille back line for a free run at goal. The quickly retreating England U-21 defender CJ Egan-Riley recovered to make a desperate lunging challenge but he got it wrong and brought Fofana crashing to the ground. It was a stonewall red card, duly brandished by referee François Letexier.
The home side continued to apply the pressure and came close twice more through shots from Tessmann and the irrepressible Fofana before getting the ball in the Marseille net again in first half stoppage time. This time Maitland-Niles’ tap in from a corner was ruled out due to a perceived push on Rulli by Tessmann.
The half time interval gave Marseille a much needed chance to rest and reorganise. They were a much improved team in the second half and started to pose a threat on the counter attack. Lyon’s creativity was somewhat diminished in the 53rd minute when Fofana was forced off with an injured right-ankle and they had to reshuffle the pack, moving Abner onto the wing and bringing Nicolas Tagliafico on to play at left-back.
There was a major scare for Lyon midway through the second half when Marseille had their best chance of the game. A low cross from the left found Hamed Traoré free in the box and he improvised to flick the ball towards goal whilst facing the wrong way but fortunately Remy Descamps was equal to it.
There were visions of a repeat of the previous season’s nightmare scenario when Marseille also went down to ten men in the first half at the Groupama Stadium but contrived to win 3-2. Back then it was Balerdi who received his marching orders early on in the encounter. This time he was decisive at the death, but at the wrong end of the pitch from his perspective.
Time was running out when Karadec sent Tyler Morton towards the byline. His chipped cross was helped on by Tessmann towards the oncoming Tagliafico at the far post. His shot beat Rulli but came back off the bar, falling to fellow substitute Pavel Šulc. The Czech tried to finish from point blank range but his effort was blocked by Balerdi. However, the hapless Argentinian could only direct the ball into his own net as he tried to clear.
There was still time for one big chance at the other end when Højbjerg came close to a last gasp equaliser for Marseille, but Lyon held on for a deserved victory and a third clean sheet in as many games. They go into the international break extremely satisfied with their start to the season.