RC Strasbourg – Olympique Lyonnais: Strasbourg Starlets Are Living The Dream (4-2)

Two teams with notorious executives are trying their best to take eyes away from affairs off the field. They opened the return to action in Ligue 1 in stylish fashion with a six goal contest, but the victors would be the club that are bringing a return on investment no one had foreseen.

Tactical analysis and match report by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

Todd Boehly’s barmy BlueCo consortium continues to raise questions in London, where Chelsea’s collapse in the new year leaves them on the brink of Champions League qualification. But a much merrier story is unfolding across the English Channel. Since the start of 2025, Strasbourg have been the sensation of French football. They boast the best defense in Ligue 1 and have only gained fewer points than runaway league leaders PSG. Now, a place among the European elite is a real possibility.

Before kickoff, they sat two points short of their visitors, who have been through their fair share of turbulent times. The risk of relegation hangs over the heads of their owners while Paulo Fonseca is sitting in the stands for most of the year to serve a suspension. Yet, his men have manufactured one of the hottest streaks of form in the division. They have won five of their last six league outings, only suffering a narrow 3-2 loss at home to PSG, and reached the quarter-final of the Europa League.

Fonseca rotated four players he picked in the lineup for a 2-1 win over Le Havre. Abner Vinícius took the place of Nicolás Tagliafico as the left back. Nemanja Matić made way for Tanner Tessmann and Jordan Veretout in the middle of the park, but Corentin Tolisso held onto a starting spot. Ahead of them, Georges Mikautadze came in for Alexandre Lacazette as one of the forwards. He hoped to benefit from the creative Rayan Cherki, who has 13 goal involvements in his last nine Lyon games.

Liam Rosenior rotated only one member of his selection from a 2-1 victory over Toulouse. Sam Amo-Ameyaw dropped to the bench, making way for Dilane Bakwa, who had missed the match with a ban. Valentín Barco, the Brighton loanee, was on the left of the field with Diego Moreira, who has now permanently left Chelsea. Andrey Santos, on loan from the Blues, shoulders the duty of captain at the tender age of 20 years old. Emanuel Emegha eyed up more goals as the top scorer of the team.

Lyon look for their code cracker

With the addition of Barco in the winter, as well as Moreira, Rosenior has two tools that allow him to adapt how he lays out the team. For this clash, he used a 5-4-1 formation in defensive organization. Moreira acted as a wing-back on the left of the back five, and Barco sat as a third central defender.

15th minute: offensive sequence from Olympique Lyonnais. Cherki’s involvement in deeper zones frequently involved interchanges with Tolisso. The central midfielder bounced the ball back to Ainsley Maitland-Niles and advanced between the lines while Cherki collected the ball. His first touch drew out Sebastian Nanasi and he threaded the lane to access Tolisso before receiving again to try and chip a pass behind for Mikautadze. Though that attempt failed, Tolisso followed up on the second ball, Santos was not quick enough to refill his midfield position and Cherki broke into the final third.

The hosts have enjoyed success in the new year working with a low block to sit off opponents before springing into space. But matters were a little too uncomfortable for the hosts in the first half. The most prominent problem was Cherki. From sole rolls to chipped passes and his ability to take time with the execution of his final action on the ball, he had the creative qualities to take apart this plan.

It finally appeared as if Cherki cracked the lock in the 40th minute. He launched into a tackle on Félix Lemaréchal, retrieving the ball before slipping around Santos. He motioned to his left as he continued to carry but kept the ball in his radius right until the last moment, releasing Nuamah on his outside. The winger saw his delivery deflect off Doukouré and into the net. However, he had been offside.

Mikautadze also added to the threat from the left wing. He rattled the frame of the bar with a volley from a Maitland-Niles cross and assisted Veretout with a far post delivery for a header that went wide of the target. The hosts had ridden their luck to reach half time without being behind on the scoreline.

Bakwa breaks the stalemate

Rosenior’s side also struggled to generate a lot of danger out of their possession phases. In deep buildup, Đorđe Petrović pushed off his line to stand next to Mamadou Sarr, and Barco moved into the midfield with Santos. These sequences relied on the quick feet of Bakwa to stick on the wings and break into the final third. He drew a foul from Abner for the team’s first shot of the evening from a free kick before blowing past the fullback on his outside to set up an effort for Emegha a minute later.

After the restart, Strasbourg showed more flexibility in the structure. Barco began moving into wide slots or sliding in front of Santos, so Nanasi occupied a more central position. But the route to Bakwa was still the most prized asset out of these patterns, and it paved the way towards the opening goal.

58th minute: offensive sequence from Strasbourg. Barco passed the ball backward to Doukouré and as the play switched through the back three, Veretout had to switch from tracking his deep movement to getting close to Nanasi. The offensive midfielder could carry the ball from a central position and find Bakwa, who took advantage of his superiority in the individual dual to breeze past Abner.

Bakwa carried the ball through the center of the field, and after attracting a foul, he stung the palms of Lucas Perri with a strike from the subsequent free kick. Several set-pieces followed as Barco banged a shot at the target, and Perri parried a series of crosses out of danger. In the end, the captain clinched the deal: Santos steered a delivery from Bakwa beyond the goalkeeper, and the hosts had taken the lead. The electric energy from the 21-year-old forward soon powered the team to a second strike.

Doué dribbled up the pitch, and Emegha crept onto the shoulder of Clinton Mata, but the defender chose to offload the ball to Bakwa. The forward dropped the shoulder, faked to cut outside, and then drifted between the bodies of Tessman and Tolisso to take the inside route. Before Veretout could close him down, he had fired a shot into the back of the net to double the advantage in five minutes.

Strasbourg stretch their lead

Lyon would not go down without a fight, halving the deficit straightaway. Sarr slashed at a cross from Maitland-Niles but none of Doukouré, Lemaréchal, or Barco cleaned up the chaos. Cherki claimed control of the situation, unleashing a long range effort with his right foot that forced Petrović to push the ball high into the air. Tolisso took advantage, holding off Sarr before scoring with his head.

However, a reliable route paved the way towards the restoration of the two goal cushion. Doukouré drilled the ball to a widening Barco, who bent the ball into the space between Mata and Niakhaté to pick out Emegha. The speedy striker had threatened from long balls before the break with runs on the shoulder of Mata and finally earned his reward, poking the ball between the posts and beyond Perri.

Valentín Barco you are insane pic.twitter.com/M2zNd4Ms2l

— Bradley (@BradleyLFC24v3) March 28, 2025

As the end of the allotted ninety minutes neared, Strasbourg saw it fit to add one more goal to their tally. Barco flung a switch to Moreira, who shuffled inside Maitland-Niles to enter the final third. The wing-back kept attacking the available space to breach the box before Amo-Ameyaw whipped the ball off his toe and slotted a shot successfully. Sarr slipped up to concede a penalty in injury time and Mikautadze had the final say on the scoreline. But all three points belonged to Rosenior’s men.

Takeaways

Strasbourg’s strong second half of the season shows no signs of slowing down. They jumped above Lyon into fifth place, are only a point below the Champions League spots, and have the wind in their sails. No matter what they achieve by May, Rosenior deserves plaudits for the turnaround of a team in trouble at the end of 2024. This display was also a demonstration that the talent in the squad stretches beyond Santos, and the offseason ought to carry significant attention for fans of French football.

Lyon will look back on this loss with frustration: the team could have gone into third position with a triumph but have only endured a big blow to their aspirations. The pack behind PSG is tight and there is no reason to believe the squad should not return to the Champions League for the first time in five years. But that achievement will require them to maximize promising performances like this. The schedule does not get any easier: Manchester United are on the horizon and Lille await next week.

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