Europa League Recap: Cherki, Benrahma Fuel OL Win

Olympique Lyonnais started their UEFA Europa League campaign strong with a 2-0 win against reigning UEFA Europa Conference League champions Olympiacos on Thursday night at Groupama Stadium.

In the first half, Lyon recorded eight shots while the Greek side countered with three. Neither side could break through and open the scoring in the first 45 minutes. The second half also proved favorable to the home side.

Les Gones recorded nine shots in the final 45 minutes with Olympiacos registering four. Despite Pierre Sage and his team's high volume of shots in the contest, cracking the defense proved difficult as Konstantinos Tzolakis was a wall, making six saves.

OL would finally put a ball past Tzolakis in the 65th minute as Rayan Cherki scored to make it 1-0. Once Lyon broke through, it didn't take long for them to score a second one as Saïd Benrahma scored in the 71st minute off an assist from Wilfried Zaha.

The away side cut the lead in half after an own goal from Duje Ćaleta-Car, but after a VAR review, the goal was canceled, and the score remained 2-0. Following the 2-0 win, Cherki spoke to Canal+ and noted that this result was a good bounce back after their loss to Olympique de Marseille last Sunday.

"It meant a lot to us to start the competition the right way. What did we take away from Sunday? We knew it was a huge letdown because, when you look at the match we played and all the chances we created, we should never have lost.

"So we came into this game really motivated. The big difference today was the coach’s talk. He got us back on track and gave us the confidence we needed. I think you could see that in how we played on the field."

Lyon will look to continue this positive momentum in league play when they travel to Stadium de Toulouse for a matchup with Toulouse FC. The two sides eye a win to secure all three points and move away from the relegation zone.

Photo credit: @OL

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