UEL Recap: Malick Fofana’s Brace Fuels OL’s First Leg Win Over FCSB
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Olympique Lyonnais will be heading home to Groupama Stadium with a 3-1 aggregate lead after defeating FCSB in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League Round of 16 tie on Thursday night at Arena Națională.
After more than 25 minutes of scoreless football, Lyon broke through at the 30th-minute mark to take a 1-0 lead. Georges Mikautadze showed brilliant vision with a clever cross to the far post, and Nicolás Tagliafico made a perfect run to head it past the goalkeeper.
Lyon took a 1-0 lead into halftime, but the Ligue 1 McDonald's side would face adversity early in the second half. Despite conceding the first goal, FCSB leveled the contest in the 68th minute.
The Romanian side had stayed strong, and Alexandru Băluță, left alone at the far post after a deflected cross from Clinton Mata, easily slotted it past Lucas Perri to level it one-all.
Late in the contest, it seemed that the first leg would end 1-1, but Les Gones scored two late goals to secure the victory. Malick Fofana came off the bench in the 68th minute and recorded a brace with the first goal coming in the 86th minute.
Corentin Tolisso battled for the ball and found Rayan Cherki, but his pass was behind Thiago Almada. It unintentionally fell to Fofana, who showed up at the far post and finished with a shot into the bottom corner.
Three minutes later, Fofana struck again to give Lyon a two-goal advantage. Perri initiated the move with a long pass, and Lyon surged forward in numbers into the box. Cherki took on a defender and passed to Fofana, who slotted a well-placed shot for his second goal.
After the match, Fofana spoke to Canal+ about his performance off the bench to help Lyon take the lead back to France.
"I'm always motivated and do my best to help the team. We have a good chance of qualifying, which feels great. It wasn’t our best performance, but it was a solid match and a good result. The coach is always there for us, and we try to show that on the field."
The Stat: 2
Fofana is now the second player under 20 to score six goals in a Europa League season, following Kasper Dolberg, who did so with Ajax in 2016-17.
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