A huge slap stuck to the hated neighbor in his garden, the evening of Olympique Lyonnais went like a dream. With in particular two doubled Tino Kadewere and Marcelo, OL rolled Saint Etienne (0-5) in his Geoffroy-Guichard stadium. The score is identical to the memorable demonstration passed by the Gones to the Stéphanois in November 2017, passed down to posterity by the celebration while chambering of Nabil Fekir. But the meeting of this January 24, 2021 does not have the same flavor. In an empty Cauldron, the score is heavy, not the atmosphere. And this Saint-Etienne is far from the one able to look Lyon in the eye.
The Lyon supporters gave a lot of their person in the cold of the Rhône this Sunday morning and surrounded the departure of the OL bus to the Forez. But this derby, the hottest in France, remained muffled, bundled up between empty stands despite the spectacle offered by the men of Rudi garcia. Covid requires, the closed door is the law. Lyon dictated theirs, but the punishment they inflicted on ASSE doesn’t really seem that harsh. Because it was not accompanied by a thunderous bronca as this kind of result must impose. Far, far from four years ago, when it was probably better to cover the ears of children in the aisles.
Ligue 1: relive Lyon’s great victory in Saint-Etienne
The Saint-Etienne youth was no match
If this match did not give the same thrills, and will probably not leave the same scars, it is also because the two teams are now playing with two classes apart. Or even five this Sunday. As if Saint-Etienne was not already in sufficient difficulty in recent months, the coronavirus has made the task of the Greens a little more difficult. Over the past two weeks, a dozen elements, from the players to the coach Claude Puel, were affected. ASSE therefore presented itself without all its weapons, and with many unknown faces. Moueffek (19 years old), Gabard (20 years), Gourna-Douath (17 years), Sow (18 years old)… So many young bottle-fed in the culture of Lyon as enemy number one but far too tender to face a formation that has become Ligue 1 cador again this season.
Going against logic had however become a habit in recent seasons during the clashes between the two clubs. When the last Stéphanois in Ligue 1 blew up the Lyon lock at the last minute last season for the premiere of Claude Puel. Or when a few months earlier the club Jean-Michel Aulas did the same to Geoffroy-Guichard on a goal of Moussa Dembele. The Saint-Etienne – Lyon derby, it is this element of irrationality and unpredictability that makes the charm of the meetings that we do not forget. At 0-2 at rest for visitors this Sunday, and an impression of an almost irresistible Lyon steamroller, the charm did not operate.
Lyon walked on the Cauldron, on adversity, and had no right to any joke, or even a gesture of annoyance as a respondent. On the contrary, he only found guilty passivity on set pieces where the skill of Leo Dubois and Memphis depay worked wonders, at the origin of four of the five achievements. Without respondent, no opposition. The derby was as anesthetized, placed in hibernation on January 24, 2021, and just awakened by the mastery of relentless Gones.