At the end of an excellent meeting, OL and Reims back to back

Olympique Lyonnais takes on the Stade de Reims! This Saturday, March 30, as part of the 27th day of Ligue 1, the Rhône club welcomes its Champagne counterpart to try to get a little closer to the European sights. At kick-off in tenth place, four points behind their rivals from Reims, ninth, OL were unable to achieve this mission at the end of a hotly contested match. The visitors started the fightback, with Ibrahim Diakite getting the first chance to get in behind the Gones defence. But Ramois, twice, came up against the alert Anthony Lopes (15th). Lyon’s response came from Ainsley Maitland-Niles, whose first powerful cross was scrambled by Alexandre Lacazette. A second attempt was then blocked by a Champagne defender (27th). During this intense but goalless first act, it was then Ryan Cherky, a shot from the right that was not wound up enough, which missed the opposition target (33rd). Finally, at the end of a game of billiards following a corner in the area, Nemanja Matic, alone at the far post, crushed his volley too far, which flew over the Reims goal (45th).

without downtime

A high tempo was maintained by the 22 players returning from the locker room. It went up a notch when Reims increased his pressure on Ron Gol. Martial Munesti, who was launched to the surface, first saw his one-touch shot deflect off Corentin Tolisso at the last minute and then brush against Lopes’ post (53rd). In the process, Valentin Atangana had a flat foot at the entrance to the area at the end of the race which, again, was blocked to narrowly miss the target (54th). But a subsequent corner finally rewarded the start of the second period for Rouge et Blanc. A hit by Junya Eto’o later found the head of captain Younis Abdelhamid. The Moroccan defender’s powerful helmet shot hit Lopes’ right post, before returning to the feet of a delighted Joseph Okumu to open the scoring from close range (55th, 0-1). A cold flash in the group stadium. But not for long. Because Gonse’s reaction was not long in coming. 25 metres, after recovering a ball on full axis, Maxence Caquerette broke into the area before losing a face-off with Diouf, blocked at the last minute by a borderline return from a Reims defender (58th). Then, the two newcomers finally came out to rattle Yehwan Diouf’s net.

OL look to the Coupe de France, Reims to Nice

From the left, Said Benrahma delivered a perfect cross for Ernest Nouamah, who managed to get away from the marking to dive and score with a header (65th, 1-1). Back to back, both teams continued their torrid pace with blows. That way everyone had a chance to take advantage in the game without downtime, like this face-off miss by Mama Balde launched by Corentin Tolisso (76th) or this long shot by Anthony Lopes (90th) brilliantly diverting Amir Richardson. But it is back-to-back and disappointing that the two clubs take part this Saturday evening, with the kick-off standings the same. Pierre Sage’s OL (10th, 35 pts) will now turn and focus on their Coupe de France semi-final against Valencians (L2) on Tuesday (8:45 pm), before traveling to Nantes next Sunday (8:45 pm). For its part, Reims (9th, 39 points), which maintains a four-point gap with its evening opponent, hopes to steal a European place before a new turning point against Nice (5th, 43 points) next Sunday. pm)

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