Maintaining a streak of invincibility is the objective of the evening. Olympique Lyonnais coach Peter Bosz said on Tuesday, on the eve of the round of 16 first leg of the Europa League against FC Porto, that his team approached the match with full energy: “We have a lot of confidence, it shows how we play and how we defend. I hoped that the players would be in good shape for the end of the season and I think that’s what is happening,” the Lyon coach said at a press conference.
Even if OL were defeated in pre-season by the Portuguese team (5-3), the Dutch coach refused to take this into account when tackling this European match. “We met Porto in the warm-up match but it’s different today, we’re playing better,” he said.
Bosz knows his opponent
Bosz has already eliminated FC Porto from the C3 in the past, when the coach was on the bench of Bayer Leverkusen, winner of the Dragons in the knockout stages of the Europa League 2019-2020.
The northern Portuguese club have won their last six games against French teams in Europe and, in four encounters, OL have never beaten the Dragons. In the Portuguese league, FC Porto is still undefeated after 25 days and is in the lead, six points ahead of its runner-up, Sporting.
However, on the Lyon side, we think that this does not confer the status of favorite on the men of Sergio Conceiçao: “Porto is a big club. They put a lot of intensity and are very offensive, we will have to take our chances (…) I don’t think there is a favorite, we will have to respond on the field, ”said Lyon striker Moussa Dembélé .
