After eliminating FC Porto yesterday, Olympique Lyonnais will have to overcome the West Ham obstacle in the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
A table for eight. Last night, Olympique Lyonnais validated their place for the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League after eliminating FC Porto (1-0 victory in the first leg, 1-1 in the return). A great performance from the Rhodaniens who were therefore waiting to find out what the rest of the menu would be in C3. There was a choice since they could come across Atalanta Bergamo, FC Barcelona, Sporting Braga, Glasgow Rangers, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt or West Ham.
West Ham on the menu
And the Lyonnais, the last French representatives in this competition, did not have to wait very long since the draw took place this Friday at the start of the afternoon in Nyon, Switzerland. Olympique Lyonnais did not inherit the biggest piece. But the French club will face West Ham. The first leg will take place on April 7 in London. The return will be held on April 14 at Groupama Stadium.
If the Gones were to qualify, they would cross swords with the winner of the Eintracht Frankfurt-FC Barcelona duel in the semi-finals. After the draw, Peter Bosz delivered his first impressions at a press conference. “It’s a good team. But there are only good teams in the quarter-finals. So we’re going to London. It’s been quite some time since I saw them play for 90 minutes against Arsenal. It was a good game. When you’re sixth in the Premier League, it’s not bad. We are tenth in L1”.
Bosz is wary but…
He then added: “I worked with Yarmolenko in Dortmund and the rest we will take a closer look. We have time for West Ham”. But OL are sure of their strengths. “When you see all the matches we’ve played in Europe, we’ve had six wins and two draws, it’s because you’re doing a good job. It is not since yesterday (Thursday) evening that there is a momentum ”. Finally, he took advantage of this press conference to push a little rant.
“I think all the teams want to play in the European Cup. So when you want to play in Europe, you want to go as far as possible. We arrive in April, we want to be there also in May. It’s good to play two matches, even if in Ligue 1, we think differently. I saw on TV ten minutes before kick-off that we were going to play in Strasbourg at 1 p.m. I really do not understand. That’s twice already this season. I don’t understand why we don’t play at 9 p.m., but I’m Dutch. We have to play at one hour, we will play at one hour”. The message got through!
