PSG-Lyon: two French giants always put on a show
Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon will face off against each other in Ligue 1 McDonald's on Sunday. The pair have faced each other on 111 occasions in all competitions. We look at the shared history between two of France's most famed teams.
Two of France's most successful clubs
PSG and Lyon are two of the most successful teams in the history of Ligue 1 McDonald's. The former have a record 13 league titles and, after Marseille, are only the second French side to win the Champions League. OL have been imperious domestically, especially at the start of the 21st century. They have seven Ligue 1 McDonald's titles to their name, one Coupe de la Ligue, five Coupe de France's, and eight Trophée des Champions.
Whilst Les Gones have never won the UCL, they are nonetheless regulars on the European stage and, like Les Parisiens, have previously won the Intertoto Cup Winners' Cup.
However, their periods of dominance have never truly coincided. Lyon's seven Ligue 1 McDonald's titles came in consecutive years, the first coming in 2002 and their last in 2008.
Passing the baton
In recent French football history, PSG have been the dominant force, and OL played a part in the genesis of their long-running success story. The most successful club of the previous decade, there was a passing of the baton. Les Parisiens won their first league title of the QSI era, and fittingly, they secured it through a win over OL.
Jérémy Menez scored the only goal of the game back in May 2013, as Carlo Ancelotti's side secured the title, and on the day, it was a future Lyon player, Christophe Jallet, who would captain the victorious Parisiens.
Whilst it was not the most spectacular game, it was certainly one of the most significant of the 111 between the pair. One of the most entertaining came just one year earlier, as the two sides shared the spoils.
PSG v Lyon: Special match for Bradley Barcola 🇫🇷🌟 pic.twitter.com/h6ZjUkXxeu
— Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) April 21, 2024
PSG, at one point, were 3-1 down, but reduced the deficit to just one goal just before the break. But PSG were reliant on a 94th-minute Guillaume Hourau header to secure a dramatic point.
But in January 2018, it was Lyon who had the last laugh. Playing against 10 men for the last half-hour following Dani Alves' red card, Memphis Depay popped up to score a 94th-minute winner.
The pair have also frequently met in cup competitions, often in finals, with the last such meeting coming in 2024, when goals from Ousmane Dembélé and Fabián Ruiz secured the title for Luis Enrique's men.
No goalless league encounter in 16 years
On that day, Bradley Barcola started against his formative club, lining up alongside Kylian Mbappé and Dembélé in the PSG attack. He is one of many players to have played for both clubs - a list that includes the likes of Ludovic Giuly, Grégory Coupet, Hatem Ben Arfa, and the aforementioned Jallet.
While both clubs have more burning rivalries, meetings between PSG and Lyon are almost always a guarantee of quality and entertainment, with the last goalless league encounter between this pair dating all the way back to 2009.
READ MORE
>> PSG suffer first defeat of UCL campaign at the hands of Bayern Munich
