The Opposite View: Familiar faces at Lyon on Sage reunion
Manager Paulo Fonseca and former Liverpool midfielder Tyler Morton, who led Olympique Lyonnais' pre-match press conference, both spoke about Pierre Sage's return to Parc OL with Palace.
In their Manager's words...
In his pre-match press conference, Fonseca – a former rumoured managerial target of Palace, with spells at Porto, Braga, Shakhtar Donetsk, Roma, Lille and AC Milan under his belt – said he was looking forward to going toe-to-toe with Sage.
Promoted to Interim Manager at Lyon in November 2023 when Fabio Grosso was dismissed, Sage took charge of a Lyon team rooted to the bottom of the Ligue 1 table, on just seven points and with one win to their name at that point.
But under Sage's leadership, Lyon recorded 15 victories in their next 20 league matches, securing qualification for the UEFA Europa League and reaching the 2023/24 Coupe de France Final, before departing the club in January 2025.
And Fonseca said of his opposite number: "It's always a pleasure. I really enjoy matches that offer genuine tactical challenges.
"I like watching Pierre's teams and what he puts in place. These are matches that motivate me enormously.
"It's sometimes more difficult to find that motivation against other teams, but Pierre is very strong tactically and I get a lot of enjoyment out of preparing for this type of match."
Their style of play is quite similar to what Pierre did at Lens
—Paulo Fonseca
Lyon have endured a mixed start to their 2026/27 Ligue 1 campaign, with three wins from their opening six matches – and a first defeat of the campaign coming at the weekend against another of Sage's former sides, RC Lens.
"We can do better than what we showed in Lens," Fonseca reaffirmed. "In the first-half, we didn't execute our plan.
"When we manage to apply our principles effectively, I think we don't encounter many problems. It's clear that teams like Lens, Rennes, Paris FC, or Nice play with a square formation. Their intention is to attack through the middle. If we allow them to play in those spaces, it becomes difficult. And if we open up spaces for them, it's also complicated.”
As for facing Palace, Fonseca noted: "We’re talking about a team that plays in the best league in the world, where clubs make very large investments every year. It’s a team with a lot of quality, tremendous intensity, and great physical power.
"Their style of play is quite similar to what Pierre did at Lens, with similar intentions. It’s a team that has changed coaches and needs time. But it remains very strong.
"It’s not comparable to the match in the 34th round of Ligue 1 last season. These are different teams, with different players.”
Morton: Palace have top players
Midfielder Tyler Morton – an England youth international who came through the academy system at Liverpool to appear 14 times at senior level and, since joining Lyon in the summer of 2025, has featured 54 times for the French club – is excited to come up against a Premier League side once more.
“It wasn’t my best match in Lens, that’s true, but I remain confident," Morton said. "It was difficult, I did a detailed analysis and it’s one of my worst matches. That’s football and that’s life. I worked hard the very next day.
"I’m looking forward to playing against Crystal Palace to put this behind me. It will be a good test to play against them because they are very strong. They have top players and I want to show my level against them."
On Sage, Morton added: "He’s very well-liked here, even though I don’t really know him. He’s doing a good job at Crystal Palace and I’m happy for him.
"When you play against someone you know, you want to win even more. But ultimately, it’s the same in every match: we always want to win.”
Lyon Team News
Fonseca added: "We have the problem of [left-back] Mohamed Ouédraogo, who had surgery yesterday.
"Nicolas [Tagliafico, Argentina defender] returned from international duty with an injury. He is expected to be out for three weeks.
"We also have the situation with Loïs [Openda, striker]. You know that Lois is our only striker with such specific characteristics. We don't have another player like him in the squad. So we have to find other solutions. We can play with Pavel [Šulc], but we have to adapt our game to the players we currently have available.
"[Šulc] is fine. The problem is that after the international break, Pavel only had one training session with us. He had played with his national team two days earlier. He was a bit tired in Lens, but today he's fine. There's no problem.
"Moussa [Niakhaté, Senegal defender] resumed team training yesterday and trained with the group again today. He will be available for tomorrow.
"All the other players are ready."
Olympique Lyonnais Factfile:
- Manager: Paulo Fonseca
- Nickname: Les Gones (The Kids)
- Ground: Parc Olympique Lyonnais
- Club Founded: 1950
- Last season: 4th
Get to know: Lyon
Following internal disagreements over the use of both amateur and professional players within Lyon Olympique Universitaire, a new, professional club was formed in August 1950 – the Olympique Lyonnais we know today.
Success was swift to follow, as Lyon won Ligue 2 in their first season, 1950/51, before lifting their first Coupe de France in 1964, adding another in 1967 and a third in 1973.
In the league, however, Lyon struggled to surpass local rivals AS Saint-Étienne, who would win Ligue 1 on eight occasions between 1963/64 and 1975/76 – and, indeed, Lyon even suffered relegation to Ligue 2 in 1983, taking six years to bounce back.
But following a takeover from Jean-Michel Aulas in the late 1980s, Lyon finally fulfilled their potential to become a major force in French football, winning the French top-flight for the first time in 2001/02. This led to a golden spell in the 2000s, when they won seven straight top-flight titles.
During the latter part of this decade, Lyon regularly survived the winter in the Champions League and reached the last 16 of the old format – only beaten by Bayern Munich in the semi-finals in 2010.
Despite selling star player Rayan Cherki to Manchester City in the summer of 2025, Lyon enjoyed a decent season in Ligue 1 last term, finishing in fourth place to ensure European qualification.
They competed in the Europa League last season and started strongly by topping the league table in the first round. However, their journey would end in the last 16 last season where they were eliminated by Celta Vigo.
On matchday one of this season's League Phase, Lyon overcame Belgian club Anderlecht 2-1 at Lotto Park, thanks to an early pair of goals from Noah Nartey and Keito Nakamura.
Olympique Lyonnais v Crystal Palace
- Thursday, 15th October
- 18:45 CEST / 17:45 BST kick-off
- UEFA Europa League
- Parc Olympique Lyonnais
- Live audio commentary on Palace TV+.