Average age 24.4, and it barely mattered
Paulo Fonseca made his feelings clear well before kick-off. The LFP had refused to move this fixture despite it landing four days before Lyon’s Champions League play-off second leg against Fenerbahce, so Fonseca sent a team to Toulouse that most Lyon supporters would have struggled to name.
Tagliafico, Tolisso, Openda, Morton, Sulc, Malick Fofana. All on the bench. Kael Boudache, Remi Himbert and Noah Nartey led the line instead. Lyon won 2-0.
Toulouse deserved better and got nothing. Julian Vignolo hit the post. Christ Tape somehow trod on the ball with an empty net in front of him. Thomas Jorgensen ran clear with half an hour left and could not finish it. Guillaume Restes and Remy Descamps kept it goalless until the 68th minute.
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Four substitutes, two goals
Pavel Sulc came on in the 63rd. Five minutes later he laid the ball off to Nartey on the edge of the area, and Lyon led a match they had barely been in.
The second followed the same pattern. Corentin Tolisso, on in the 69th, found Malick Fofana with a perfect ball in the 85th. Right foot, bottom corner, done. Both goalscorers and both assists came off the bench, which is the sort of thing that gets a coach out of an argument with the league.
Fenerbahce is the fixture that actually matters
Lyon open with three points, level with Marseille and Lens. Fonseca protected the players he needed to protect and still took the win, so the gamble paid off twice.
Wednesday is where the season really starts. Fenerbahce won their own league match on Saturday, hours before this one finished. Whoever comes through the second leg goes into the Champions League phase, and for a club still operating under financial supervision that revenue is not a bonus. It is the plan.
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