It was 1.30am when most of the 3,000 travelling Manchester United fans were dropped by buses in Lyon’s Place Bellecour after an escort from the stadium on the outskirts of the city.
Rats receive better treatment than travelling English football fans from the authorities in France, and those fans who had enjoyed the Lyon sunshine and hospitality of the locals were forced to jump through many hoops just to see the match. Many gave up, especially after the entire Lyon metro system went down four hours before kick off.
Others didn’t want to traverse across the city to pick up wristbands, then be bussed to the stadium where they would be held for an hour after the final whistle. Those who did persist saw a dramatic finale where United came within a Rayan Cherki goal of a fine away win in the Europa League quarter-final first leg in the cauldron created by the 58,000 crowd.
“It’s the worst moment to concede a goal,” said French defender Leny Yoro after his best United performance. “Two-one would have been a good result away from home but now we must win it at home. They’re a good team with a good striker and we need to be ready for everything.”
Andre Onana, United’s goalkeeper who had disparaged Lyon before the game, created a rod for his own back. Lyon’s former United player Nemanja Matic responded with his own criticism of the Cameroonian goalkeeper, branding the United No 1 “one of the worst in the club’s history." His teammates used Onana’s comments as motivation, Lyon’s fans as fuel to ramp up their vociferous support further, a target standing right in front of their eyes.
Onana was heavily booed and jeered at before and during the game in which he had set himself up to fail. And he did, his nightmare coming true as a mistake allowed a free kick from Thiago Almada to squeeze in to give Lyon the lead after 25 minutes. Onana misjudged the ball amid the uncertainty of a packed box. The whistling whenever he touched the ball never let up.
Yoro’s flicked header restored parity in one of the last actions of the first half while Joshua Zirkzee’s 87th-minute header from the latest delightful Bruno Fernandes ball looked like the winner for a side who remain the only unbeaten team in European competition. But there was a further sting as Onana looked like he could have done better for Lyon’s late equaliser in an even contest full of drama, edge and action.
“We are really disappointed,” said coach Ruben Amorim. “We should have taken a one-goal advantage into the next game.”
Amorim tried to be diplomatic about his under-fire goalkeeper. “The important thing is to focus on the next game. When one player makes a mistake, all the team makes a mistake,” he said.
Asked if he needed to change his goalkeeper, Amorim replied: “No, we continue to do the same thing – training, seeing the games, trying to choose the best XI to win every match. I think we did well. In the first half we had some difficulties trying to press the opponent because they play in a different way. In the second half we adapted and controlled the game. I think we did well; we can do better.
“We are improving game by game but we need to be more clinical. This is half time, we must think of the next one. We’ll give everything we have to get to the next stage.”
Fair and reasonable words. In his captain Fernandes, Yoro and Zirkzee he had three top performances in another European match with more positives than negatives amid a hapless season where the team sit 14th in the Premier League. The Europa League, with its final in Bilbao, offers the only salvation, plus Uefa Champions League football and the much needed financial boost next term.
“I think we defended really well, we were compact, and we’ll need that again at home,” said Yoro. “We need to keep our heads up – we didn’t lose tonight and we can win at Old Trafford, of course we can”.
“It was a great football match,” said Lyon’s coach Paulo Fonseca. “We played very well with a lot of courage and quality. Offensively and defensively, I’m proud of my players – even if I’m not satisfied with the result.
“The players are mentally very strong; they believe in it until the last second. We showed that we are a courageous team, with personality. It’s never easy to play against a team like Manchester United but we were able to respond. I think we have every chance of qualifying for the semi-finals. We have the opportunity to do something special at Old Trafford.”
“I think it’s 50/50,” Amorim said of United's chances of progressing to the semi-finals. “We must be really smart because we are going to play at home in our stadium with our own fans and they will give us energy. But at the same time Lyon wants to push us to have possession near the box to make a lot of space to have transitions. The next game we will have to play with our heart but we need to think a lot during the game. So it’s a really difficult match but we are playing with our fans and when we play at home we are playing with one more player.”
