Lyon faces Sparta Prague with european past failures looming

After suffering a 1-2 defeat at Sparta Prague in the third qualifying round first leg of the Champions League last Tuesday, Olympique Lyonnais must now turn the tide in Tuesday’s return match at 21:00. The French side carries the weight of three previous summer stumbles on Europe’s biggest stage.

What lies ahead for Lyon

If Lyon can overcome this tricky third qualifying round second leg against Sparta Prague tonight (21:00) — despite last week’s away loss (1-2) — and then navigate the playoffs against either Fenerbahçe (TUR) or Sturm Graz (AUT) on 18-19 and 25-26 August, all ambitions become possible. The club’s last deep Champions League runs came in 2009-2010 and 2019-2020, both ending in semi-finals, but notably both campaigns started with playoff victories over Anderlecht (BEL) in August 2009 (5-1, 3-1).

Three painful summer eliminations

Yet before any dreams materialize, a fourth summer humiliation threatens to haunt the Rhône Valley club. After defeats to Maribor (SVN) in the Champions League qualifiers in 1999, Real Sociedad (ESP) in 2013 and Astra Giurgiu (ROU) in the Europa League playoffs in 2014 — the latter widely regarded as the most embarrassing — we look back at these three painful episodes.

August 1999 in the Champions League: the shock defeat to Maribor

The summer of 1999 began with a blockbuster: Olympique Lyonnais lured Brazilian striker Sonny Anderson from FC Barcelona for 125 million French francs (€18 million) — a hefty sum at the time — and finished third in Ligue 1. But against the unfancied Slovenian side NK Maribor, the dream turned into a nightmare. Lyon, coached by Bernard Lacombe, lost the first leg at home (0-1) on 10 August 1999 after conceding a late Filipovic strike in the 89th minute, despite dominating play. Two weeks later in Slovenia, the outcome was even more humiliating: a 0-2 defeat, with goals from Simundza (24’) and Balajic (45’), as Lyon’s squad — featuring Anderson, Tony Vairelles, Alain Caveglia, Vikash Dhorasoo and Grégory Coupet — produced a staggering display of impotence. The L’Équipe headline the next day read ‘Lyon, the summer flop’.

Relegated to the UEFA Cup, Lyon was eliminated in the last 16 by Werder Bremen (GER) (3-0, 0-4) after beating HJK Helsinki (FIN) and Celtic Glasgow. In Ligue 1, Lyon again finished third in May 2000 and was knocked out of both domestic cups in the quarter-finals.

August 2013 in the Champions League: Griezmann’s revenge

Fourteen years later, Lyon had become a different beast: seven Ligue 1 titles between 2002 and 2008 and a Champions League semi-final in 2010 (lost to Bayern Munich, 0-1, 0-3). Yet in August 2013, the Rhône Valley club — having again finished third in Ligue 1 — suffered another summer setback in Europe. After dispatching Grasshopper Zurich (SUI) in the third qualifying round (1-0, 1-0), Lyon faced Real Sociedad and their then-unknown forward Antoine Griezmann, whom Lyon had previously deemed too frail to sign up for their academy years earlier.

Griezmann’s revenge was swift and brutal. In the first leg at Gerland on 20 August, ‘Grizou’ opened the scoring with a sensational left-footed volley (17’) that made the L’Équipe front page the next day. Real Sociedad won 2-0, with Seferovic adding the second (49’). In the return in San Sebastián on 28 August, the script repeated itself: Lyon crashed out 0-2, Carlos Vela scoring twice (67’, 91’). Lyon, managed by Rémi Garde and featuring Samuel Umtiti, Yoann Gourcuff, Alexandre Lacazette and Nabil Fekir, was humbled.

Relegated to the Europa League, Lyon reached the quarter-finals before falling to Juventus Turin (0-1, 1-2). Domestically, they finished fifth in Ligue 1, were eliminated in the Coupe de France round of 16 and lost the Coupe de la Ligue final to PSG (1-2).

August 2014 in the Europa League: the ultimate humiliation against Astra Giurgiu

‘We got hammered by a bunch of nobodies we didn’t even know!’ With his characteristic bluntness, the late Bernard Lacombe, then vice-president and special advisor to president Jean-Michel Aulas, summed up Lyon’s calamity in the summer of 2014. The club was eliminated in the Europa League playoffs by modest Romanian side Astra Giurgiu, despite a 1-0 away win in the return leg on 28 August, Jordan Ferri netting the only goal (23’).

The first leg at Gerland on 21 August had been a disaster. Lyon, now under Hubert Fournier, took the lead through Steed Malbranque (25’) but collapsed after Fatai (71’) and Budescu’s 81st-minute penalty. The squad, featuring Corentin Tolisso, Christophe Jallet and Maxime Gonalons, recovered to finish second in Ligue 1 in May 2015, securing a return to the Champions League. Yet this summer’s fiasco in 2014 — widely seen as the worst of the three — marked the end of an 18-year unbroken streak of European football for Lyon.