How Explosive Lyon will harm Barca

Barcelona face Olympique Lyon in the second leg of the Champions League tie on Wednesday. The Catalans were unable to score on the road despite attempting 25 shots at the Groupama stadium. Now, Barca must beat OL in order to advance to the quarter-final of the competition.

Marca have interviewed Toulouse‘s Manu Garcia to find out more about the Ligue 1 giants.

The 21-year-old Spaniard reckons that Lyon are really dangerous on their day: 

“They weren’t comfortable in the first leg and they were missing [Nabil] Fekir, who’s their most important player. They’re a team you have to be careful ofwhen they’re at their best and they have already shown that against Manchester City.”

However, should Barca be on top of their game, Garcia doesn’t see Lyon having any chance to advance to the next round of the European competition against the Catalans:

If Barcelona have a good night they shouldn’t have a problem. But, you never know. Lyon have shown that on their day they can be explosive, but they also have a lot of bad days. If they’re at their best, Barcelona can have a bad night.”

A lot will depend on Lyon’s leader, Nabil Fekir, Garcia reckons, who is back for the second leg after being suspended for the home game:

“He dribbles, lifts the team and knows when to take the ball. A lot of their play goes through him, but he does have good players around him, he’s just the most creative.”

The teams approach the match after different results at home. Barca defeated Rayo 3-1 thanks to Gerard Pique, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez’s goals at the Camp Nou on Saturday. Lyon were unable to beat Strasbourg despite leading by two goals after the break. Our opponents conceded twice in two minutes with Ludovic Ajourque scoring both goals in the 69th and 70th minutes.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *