No offense to the Parisiennes who held the clash at Groupama Stadium this Sunday afternoon, beaten 3-2 by OL
after opening the scoring in front of just over 22,000 rather shy Lyon supporters, it was an absentee who hovered over this Franco-French duel.
Kheira Hamraoui should indeed have taken part in this first leg semi-final of the Champions League.
Only his altercation with Sandy Baltimore, during the last training session on Saturday morning, changed his destiny once again this season.
And in a way that of his team.
Not having presented to the bus in the direction of the Gare de Lyon, the midfielder was not included in the group which traveled to the Rhône.
A new episode which resonated strongly with the already burning context of the Parisiennes' last match at Groupama Stadium, in mid-November, for the first leg of the championship where OL had won 6-1 while the affair of the name of the Parisienne had just burst.
Five months and three mistakes by Czech PSG goalkeeper Bara Votikova later, with Lyon leading 3-1 after 51 minutes, we wondered how far the new Hamraoui episode would take Paris.
Finally, Marie-Antoinette Katoto, the top scorer in the history of the club, would avoid the infernal fall.
She who had already allowed Paris to lead after a superb sequence at the start of the match, obtained a penalty for a hand from Malard revealed by the VAR.
By succeeding, Dudek limited the weight of the defeat and left the Parisiennes with all their chances for the return match in a Park where the ultras will be in support.
“Losers make excuses all the time”
Despite everything, the question of a possible loss of influx linked to the altercation which had suddenly sealed the climate at the Bougival training center the day before and the absence of Hamraoui arises.
But Didier Ollé-Nicolle refutes it.
“No no, honestly, that would be too easy…, breathes the Parisian coach.
We got together with the group that was going to play that game.
We had a good game to play.
The team produced a very interesting copy, in many areas.
Afterwards, the error is part of the game. Bara
(Votikova)
, I'm not going to say that she's one of the least disturbed, but she's a foreign player, who is quite fresh mentally, so I don't think it's be a girl who has been greatly impacted.
So in relation to the service and the result, no
(there was no loss of influx)
, on the contrary.
»
“We had the idea that there were two good games to play to go to the Champions League final, continues the Parisian coach.
Losers or weaklings give excuses or reasons all the time.
If we want to deserve
(to go to the final)
, we have to find solutions in the game and no other reasons.
In these big matches, you can't make mistakes and you have to be efficient.
We were on our first occasion.
Not after.
»
Didier Ollé-Nicolle will not dwell on Hamraoui's situation any longer.
The day before, PSG had indicated that it “will take all measures to draw the consequences of this incident”.
The coach prefers to insist on the collective and the reaction of his players after the incredible error of the Czech goalkeeper who offered the third goal to OL.
And promises him redemption on his return, Saturday (9 p.m.).
The appointment is made.
It remains to be seen where Kheira Hamraoui will be on Saturday evening.
That's another story.