‘We were really fired up’ – Rayan Cherki praises Pierre Sage’s management | OneFootball

After scoring against Olympique de Marseille on the weekend, Rayan Cherki (21) was once again involved in the action on Thursday evening as Olympique Lyonnais kickstarted their Europa League campaign with a 2-0 victory over Olympiacos.

The France U21 star opened the scoring against the Greek side in the 65th minute with a move that demonstrated his ability to hold onto the ball despite intense pressure evading three defenders before releasing a powerful strike.

The match on Thursday would be Cherki’s first start of the season after he had been limited to a substitute appearance on his campaign debut against Marseille. The creative midfielder had been placed in the “loft” while Lyon waited for him to sign an extension after his transfer away from his formative club over the summer had failed to materialise.

Cherki was keen to point to the key difference between Lyon’s performance against Marseille and Olympiacos at the microphone of Canal+ after the game, “What did we learn from Sunday? We knew it was a big disappointment because when you see the match we played and all the chances we created, we should never have lost so we were really fired up for this match.”

The Frenchman continued, “What made the difference today was the coach’s speech. He got us back into it, he gave us the confidence we needed. I think that was reflected on the pitch.”

GFFN | Nick Hartland