OL-PSG, a gala final… in a tiny stadium

2023-05-12 15:23:00

The final of the Women’s French Cup is held on Saturday, from 4 p.m., at the Stade de la Source (6,000 seats) located in Orléans.

by IM with AFP

The Lyonnaises have every intention of offering a title to their supporters, but also to the deposed president Jean-Michel Aulas, who has done so much for women’s football in Lyon and in France.
© VICTOR JOLY / Victor Joly / DPPI via AFP

Published on 05/12/2023 at 3:23 p.m.

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Un big football meeting, in front of very few supporters. Saturday May 13, the women’s team of Olympique Lyonnais faces that of PSG in the final of the Coupe de France. It’s an unprecedented poster in three years. But the kick-off of the match – broadcast on France 2 – will be given at 4 p.m. in the small stadium in Orleans, which can only accommodate 6,000 spectators. What make the players cringe, who see the men being offered the honors of a match at 9 p.m. and the Stade de France, which can accommodate 80,000 people.

“For women’s football, you have to be more ambitious”: the boss of the Lyon team, Sonia Bompastor, did not mince words this week when talking about the Stade de la Source and its 6,000 seats, theater of the next fight between the Fenottes and their Parisian rivals.

The coach spoke of “what is happening in England” – a sold-out Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester United this weekend at Wembley (90,000 seats) – and deplored the choice of the French Federation. “We would have liked the FFF to choose a stadium of at least 15,000 to 20,000 people, especially when we see the poster for this final between the two best French teams,” she added.

Nor should we count on the fervor of the Parisian ultras, usual supporters of the women’s section, who have given up traveling to the Loiret as part of a wider boycott born of a conflict with the management of the club.

Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Bleues coach Hervé Renard, announced in the stands, should attend this unprecedented poster in the final since 2020, the year of OL’s last coronation in the competition. The 2021 edition was canceled in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Lyonnaises stumbled the following year in the round of 16, against Paris.

“The double, a minimum”

OL are triple motivated for Saturday’s deadline. It’s about recovering a trophy abandoned for too long, sending a signal to PSG before their “final” in the league on May 21, and offering the Cup to ex-president Jean-Michel Aulas as a gift. departure.

“If at this moment he needs comfort and happiness, it is his female team that can bring him. We are going to give the maximum to give him this pleasure”, launched Sonia Bompastor, “saddened” by the sidelining of the historic leader, one of the main promoters of female practice in France.

READ ALSOOL, Aulas and the Coupe de France: to end the reign in style despite everythingFor Lyon, winning the Cup and the championship would also look like a consolation prize this season after the early exit from the Champions League, against Chelsea in the quarter-finals. “For us and the team’s record, finishing with a double would be a minimum in terms of ambition and compared to what we have displayed in terms of objectives”, did not hide Bompastor.

Their rivals from PSG intend to thwart this plan, on Saturday then in the league, despite a three-point delay in the standings. To achieve this, the capital club can count on Grace Geyoro, its international midfielder who started in Orleans, but still not on its star attackers Kadidiatou Diani and Marie-Antoinette Katoto, not yet fit to play again.