Europa League: stunning Lyon in Prague, princely Monaco in Eindhoven

Nice evening for the French clubs in the Europa League.

After the Marseillais draw in Rome against Lazio (0-0), Lyon winner in Prague 4-3 and Monaco who won in Eindhoven 2-1 managed two magnificent shots.

OL say thank you to Paqueta and Toko Ekambi

Without his handyman Lucas Paqueta, on the bench at kickoff, and led 2-0, Lyon was scared against Sparta Prague before overturning the match (4-3) thanks to a double from Karl Toko Ekambi. After their success in Glasgow against Rangers (2-0) and at home against Brondby (3-0), OL have a third victory and take the lead in Group A with 9 points, five more than Sparta . Paqueta's decisive entry on Saturday hid Lyon's shortcomings and allowed Peter Bosz's team to win against Monaco (2-0). Without the Brazilian in the first period, OL suffered again, but his appearance after the break still did a lot of good for his team, very badly on board.

The Lyonnais were cold picked by a goal from Lukas Haraslin (1-0, 4th). After the rookie Shaqiri, it is the young right-back Malo Gusto, tenured in place of captain Léo Dubois and the experienced Jérôme Boateng who were caught failing on the second goal, scored again by Haraslin (2-0, 19th), a strike of the right. Toko Ekambi ended up relaunching his own shortly before the break (2-1, 42nd). Launched in depth by Boateng, the Cameroonian striker this time outstripped Nita. If Peter Bosz had waited for the 66th minute against Monaco to bring in Paqueta, fresh from a match with his selection, he put the Brazilian back in his eleven upon returning from the locker room. It was first the evening captain, Houssem Aouar, already a scorer against Brondby, who was in charge of equalizing (2-2, 53rd),at the end of a collective action in which Paqueta was involved. But it was the Brazilian who switched the game on a strike in the skylight, after a service from the outside of the right foot from Toko Ekambi (3-2, 67th). Lyon was still scared by finishing 10 after the exclusion of Malo Gusto for a second yellow card (74th).

🔥 The pass of three for #TeamOL!

🔴🔵

Led by two goals, our Lyon have turned things around in a crazy match and prevail 4 goals to 3 to continue their faultless in @EuropaLeague!

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OL confirms its first place in the group with 9 points after! #SPAOL pic.twitter.com/gQb1Y5HAHM

- Olympique Lyonnais (@OL) October 21, 2021

Even outnumbered, OL managed to drive home the point thanks to the second goal from Toko Ekambi (88th, 4-2), on a pass from Bruno Guimaraes.

His fifth goal in C3 this season.

Sparta reduced the mark in additional time by Ladislav Krejci (4-3, 90th + 6), without however changing the outcome of the match: "We will keep the positive tonight: the character of the team after the two goals conceded.

We lost the duels at the start.

We are very happy with the victory.

The team was balanced in the second half.

The players live well together, ”says sporting director Juninho.

“The team had a great reaction.

I am very satisfied with the second half, and proud.

We increased in intensity, with our technique and our talent.

»Continues Houssem Aouar.

ASM wins at the finish

Faced with an old rival of the Greens of Saint-Etienne in the 1970s, PSV Eindhoven, Monaco achieved a famous blow. Copiously jostled in the second period, ASM managed to snatch in the last minutes a very valuable 2-1 success which allows him to take control of group B. The three points fell in the 89th minute, when Monaco, in difficulty , especially seemed to want to save the draw. But after suffering a lot in the second half, Niko Kovac's players found some space in the last five minutes. On an overflow from Caio Henrique on the left side, the Brazilian's center was taken full axis by Sofiane Diop for the goal of 2-1.

𝗢𝗨𝗜 𝗠𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗘𝗨𝗥𝗦.

Reckless and daring, our Red and Whites snatched an important victory for this 200th European Cup match.

Thanks guys.

𝟏-𝟐⌁ #PSVASM pic.twitter.com/RbNyufyU7W

- AS Monaco 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco) October 21, 2021

With this victory, Monaco takes the lead of its group before receiving PSV Eindhoven to Louis II. ASM has 7 points, against 5 for Real Sociedad, 4 for PSV and none for the Austrians in Sturm Graz: “It was hard but everyone did a great job, confides defender Ruben Aguilar at the microphone of RMC Sport. . Not everyone will come and win here and it's a great result. We knew that to achieve a positive result, we would have to be strong. The staff had warned us and we responded. This is a very important victory for us. We knew we would have to put up with it, to keep our backs rounded. We had a big first period, then a big second too because we were present in the duels. And our goalie had a big game too. It was the 200th European match in the history of AS Monaco.