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Unable to follow Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1, it would be a major shock that Bruno Genesio's team beat the Catalans to two legs.
However, while the "OL" do not have Lionel Messi, and their revenues last season were less than a quarter of those in Barcelona – 690.4 million euros (780 million dollars) according to the Deloitte Football Money League – they are real competitors of Barca elsewhere.
According to the badysis of the CIES Football Observatory (International Center for Sport Studies) on the number of players trained at the youth level by clubs having played in the five main European leagues since 2014, Lyon has the wind in its sails The giants of Spain.
Barcelona and Real Madrid each provided 69 players, Lyon being third on the list with 56, two less than Manchester United but with more minutes played.
Constant flow of talent
Barcelona has not been as dependent on young people from the renowned La Masia academy, it tends to buy more talented talent, including French central defender Samuel Umtiti of Lyon.
Three Lyon players beat Guingamp Friday and are out of school: goalkeeper Anthony Lopes, Houssem Aouar and Nabil Fekir.
The latter helped France to win the title of world champion in Russia, and a decision at the end of this season seems likely, Fekir is about to follow the footsteps of many before him.
Since OL won the title in 2008, the list of youth products destined to be sold before being sold at a hefty price is long – Karim Benzema, Anthony Martial, Umtiti, Alexandre Lacazette and Corentin Tolisso, to name a few. The development of youth is vital for Lyon.
"In terms of youth development, we are investing much more than any other club in France: more than 10 million euros a year, and this is constantly growing," said the long-time president, Jean- Michel Aulas.
Keeping young players up to their peak is not always possible, just as Lyon is not able to compete with European giants in terms of buying talent.
Invest in infrastructure
Instead, they managed to recruit talented children from smaller teams, including Tanguy Ndombele.
Purchased in Amiens for 10 million euros, the midfielder made his entry into the France team and could move for more than 50 million euros.
There is also reason to be optimistic about the future of the club, whose listed holding company, OL Groupe, is partly owned by Chinese investors.
In a country where, as a rule, clubs do not own their stadiums, Aulas has overseen the construction of a 59,000-seat privately funded pitch, the Groupama stadium, which ranks among the best in the world. 39; Europe.
The club is now planning to build an adjacent covered arena for other events, with a maximum capacity of 15,000 people.
"Others are investing primarily in players, so we preferred to start with the infrastructure and then build a competitive team," said Aulas.
They already have the best women's team in Europe – led by the winner of the Golden Ball, Ada Hegerberg – and the Groupama stadium will host the final of the Women's World Cup in July.
Last piece of puzzle?
Moving the men's team to the next level could be considered the missing piece of the puzzle, and Lyon's goal is to "rank among the top 20 clubs in Europe" and "winners". reach the 400 million mark of annual turnover.
The goal is a more regular presence at this stage of the Champions League, but can all this help OL to defeat Barcelona, especially with Fekir suspended Tuesday?
"Manchester City is one of the best teams around the world and we have beaten them," Brazilian defender Marcelo told AFP.
"Maybe this year will mark the return of the great years for Lyon in the Champions League."
as-yk-jta-fjt / mw
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