Ligue 1: Lyon slowed down by Reims

Olympique Lyonnais were held in check this Saturday on their home pitch by Reims (1-1), on the occasion of the 27th day of Ligue 1. The Rémois opened the scoring through Okumu (55th), before the Rhone residents did not equalize thanks to Nuamah (65th). A result that does no one's business, Stade de Reims remains 9th (39 points) while OL - who had 6 wins in their last 7 outings in L1 - are still 10th (35 points).

In an important meeting given the ambitions of both teams, the rhythm took time to establish. The Lyonnais still dominated this start to the match by creating more clear chances. Often served on his left side, Rayan Cherki was at the origin of many of Gones' actions. But each time it was in the last gesture that the locals lacked realism. Despite a large number of set pieces, Pierre Sage's players never managed to get rid of the Reims marking and therefore never found themselves falling back from the international hopeful's crosses.

In certain counter situations, Will Still's men, in the stands because they were suspended for this match, reminded the entire Les Gones team that they could be dangerous. Anthony Lopes remained vigilant and repelled the Reims strikes to stay level. The two teams returned to the locker room with a parity score which did not suit anyone. When the game resumed, the pace was clearly higher and the observation phase of the first period seemed far away.

Much more enterprising, the Rémois showed themselves to be much more dangerous and would quickly be rewarded. From a corner, captain Yunis Abdelhamid headed back but saw his shot hit the crossbar. All the Lyonnais watched the ball die in front of their line but the Rémois, present in numbers in the area, did not expect so much to take the lead. Right side Joseph Okumu just had to slip the leather into the empty goal of Anthony Lopes who was still on the ground (0-1, 56th).

Stung by this opening score, the locals would start to push harder to get back into the score. It was in particular thanks to his replacements that Pierre Sage was going to change this meeting. Ernest Nuamah found himself alone at the far post on a cross from Saïd Benrahma and allowed his team to come back to level by scoring his second goal of the season (1-1, 65th). Then, the Lyonnais were looking for victory at all costs and almost got punished for long shots. The Portuguese goalkeeper worked several times, notably on a sublime curling shot from Amir Richardson which went straight into his top corner (89th).