Paulo Fonseca explains Lyon’s meltdown against Manchester United | OneFootball

It was a game that was flipped on its head on more than one occasion. The scores were level as Olympique Lyonnais headed to Old Trafford in a bid to progress to the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League at Manchester United’s expense.

Lyon fell 2-0 behind before half-time before a second-half comeback took the game to extra-time. Despite losing Corentin Tolisso to a second yellow card just before the end of the 90 minutes, OL took the lead in extra time through Rayan Cherki before Alexandre Lacazette’s penalty put Paulo Fonseca’s side on the brink of progression.

However, Manchester United came roaring back, scoring three goals in just seven minutes with Harry Maguire’s winner coming in injury-time as Ruben Amorim’s side pulled off an unexpected comeback (5-4, agg. 7-6). Responding to a question from Get French Football News, Fonseca identified Lyon’s excessive celebrations as a key reason behind the collapse.

“It is a mix of emotions in my head. Until now, it is difficult to understand what happened,” began Fonseca. “I think, first of all, we did magnificent things. We led 4-2 with one player less on the pitch but we celebrated the 4-2 too much when the match was not finished. I think that we lacked emotional balance at this moment. It is the only negative that I can identify. We celebrated the 4-2 when there was still time to play. We should have thought about continuing to manage the match. We lacked experience at this moment […] I am sad because I thought we deserved more.”

GFFN | Luke Entwistle – reporting from Old Trafford