His 150th appearance in Ligue 1. The final derby between Olympique Lyonnais and Saint Etienne at Stade de Gerland. Never let it be said that Alexandre Lacazette has anything less than a perfect sense of timing. “I lived out a dream,” the Lyon striker said after hitting the hat-trick which swept his team to victory on Sunday night. “(There are) many times when I’ve imagined scoring a hat-trick in the derby at Gerland, but I never thought it would be in the last derby or that it would put us in the history books.”
There have been times this season when Lyon have looked anything but a team that can ignite a gala occasion. After thrilling France last season with their youthful energy and pushing Paris Saint-Germain for the title right up until the final few games of the season, we have been stuck with a wan version of Hubert Fournier’s side for most of this campaign. After the home defeat to Zenit Saint Petersburg on Wednesday that pushed OL to the brink of Champions League elimination, the derby demanded a statement from the home side. If ever there was a night on which for Lacazette and his supporting cast to remember their lines, then this was it.
It was never going to be easy. After decades of Lyonnais dominance in the derby, the arrival of Christophe Galtier at the Saint Etienne helm has gradually changed the balance of things. This was Lyon’s first win in the derby in almost two years, and they have especially struggled to make home advantage count against Les Verts in recent times. Before Sunday, Sainté had only lost 1 of their 6 previous visits to Gerland in Ligue 1 since Galtier’s appointment in December 2009.
It’s a fixture in which, traditionally, it’s far too easy to play the occasion rather than the game itself. That’s a mentality that the canny Galtier has helped his team to step away from. Masterminding a win on his first visit to Gerland in September 2010 certainly helped in terms of belief - Dimitri Payet’s sensational free-kick gave Sainté a win at the home of their rivals for the first time in 17 years, in a game in which they were under siege for large parts of.
Galtier is no one-trick pony, though. He used different approaches to prise results from the game, achieving another win in March 2014 by using wing-backs to exploit Lyon’s midfield diamond, and winning a point in April this year by setting his team to instigate lightning counter-attacks against the waves of Lyon’s offensive armada.
This time, though, it was Fournier who deserved the hat-tip. The home side’s intensity was a feature of the game from the very beginning, not allowing Saint Etienne the chance to break out. Though lining up ostensibly in their habitual 4-4-2 against a visiting team aligned in 4-3-3, Lyon were determined not to be caught out by being too narrow.
One of Fournier’s biggest calls was choosing Rafael and Jérémy Morel as his full-backs, at the expense of the benched Christophe Jallet and Henri Bedimo. Both players fully justified the coach’s faith, as the WhoScored player average position map suggests. Rafael and Morel both maintained good width and took up positions high up the pitch, simultaneously instigating home attacks - Morel created the opener for Lacazette, and the striker followed up Rafael’s saved shot for his second - and denying Romain Hamouma and Nolan Roux the opportunity to lead breakouts.
When the wide pair charged forward for Lyon, captain Maxime Gonalons dropped between centre-backs Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Samuel Umtiti to virtually create a back three, having played as a stop-gap centre-back as cover in recent weeks. This meant that Gonalons’ withdrawal with a thigh injury after half-an-hour was a real blow for Lyon, though we should add that Sainté were forced to substitute midfielder Fabien Lemoine at almost the same time.
Conversely, this was the moment in the match at which the versatility of Fournier’s young squad was underlined. Corentin Tolisso, Lyon’s jack of all trades, dropped into the sentinel role, from where he made 4 tackles and 3 interceptions. He also kept the game moving, as Gonalons tends to do for the team - the captain has a 90% pass completion rate this season - landing 84.6% of his passes.
That success rate in possession was matched by Jordan Ferri, another Lyon midfielder capable of fulfilling a range of roles. The 23-year-old is sharp in the tackle, and Galtier made it very clear after the game that he was extremely unhappy with Ferri’s challenge on Robert Beric, which forced the Slovenian striker off just before the end. Ferri is also very handy in possession, though, making 4 key passes, and providing Lacazette with his hat-trick goal via a superbly delayed through ball.
It was the form of Lacazette, and of high-profile signing Mathieu Valbuena, which will cheer Fournier the most. After a difficult week of enduring headlines and gossip, Valbuena showed the extent of his mental strength with a fine display. The quality of his passing is self-evident, and he made 3 key passes, as well as 3 dribbles, but there was strong signs that the 31-year-old is really adapting to Lyon’s game.
Valbuena’s advanced interpretation of his playmaker role effectively created a front three with Lacazette and Claudio Beauvue and having the former Marseille man’s incision a little bit further up the pitch is good news for both. Beauvue, whose partnership with Lacazette still needs work, was unlucky not to score when denied by Stéphane Ruffier.
Lacazette, however, was looking the real deal again. This was his dead-eyed best, as he converted 3 of just 4 efforts on goal in the match. His 3 dribbles showed how much more implicated he was in the attacking transitions, due at least in part to Valbuena’s play, and his display was a fine riposte to Didier Deschamps’ recent criticism of his performances, which he admitted “motivated me a bit.”
All in all, it was a night when he, and Lyon, remembered just how good they can be. If they do so on a regular basis, this regional rivalry will be less important than OL definitively establishing themselves as France’s second-best team.
Will the derby win over Saint Etienne prove to be a turning point in Lyon's season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
