Two absentees at the final session
Tuesday night in Istanbul, a big chunk of Lyon’s season gets decided.
Lyon face Fenerbahce in the first leg of their Champions League play-off, 21:00 kick-off. Paulo Fonseca ran the last training session on Monday morning at the Groupama OL Training Center.
Two players were missing. Khalis Merah is being treated for a minor knee problem. Pavel Sulc is not due back on the pitch until Wednesday.
Wednesday. The day after the match.
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Tagliafico back, two new defenders on the grass
Everyone else was there, and Fonseca had plenty to work with. Mads Bidstrup trained with the group again. So did Nicolas Tagliafico, the Argentina world champion rejoining at a useful moment.
Two new signings were out there too. Zachary Athekame, the Swiss full-back on loan from AC Milan, and centre-back Felix Bacher. Both were brought in to thicken a back line that gets a serious examination on Tuesday.
So Lyon are close to full strength. Two fitness niggles, nothing worse.
180 minutes, and the money sits on one side of them
The brief is simple. Do not lose the tie before the return leg exists. A play-off runs 180 minutes, and the trip to Turkey is the harder half of it.
What hangs on it is stark. The winner goes into the Champions League league phase. The loser drops to the Europa League. The gap between those two outcomes, in cash and in standing, is not one Lyon can shrug at.
Fenerbahce’s crowd can turn the ground into a furnace for 90 minutes. Lyon are well aware.
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