Europa League – Before Manchester -United OL: Lacazette, Equal status, heritage to sublimate

“I blame myself for missing the two in first, because we could have made a slightly more comfortable match. Thanks to the teammates, we will not talk about me in the media so I am happy, we won”. Sunday evening, Alexandre Lacazette had just loaned the Lyonnaise victory on the lawn of Auxerre (3-1) but looked more marked, at the microphone of Dazn, by his two big occasions missed in the first period.

His reaction as his performance summarizes his season rather well – most likely his last in his heart club since he will be at the end of the contract in June. The Lyonnais captain, necessarily impacted by his participation in the Paris Olympic Games last summer or the weight of his almost 34 years (he will celebrate them on May 28), can no longer give as much as before physically. And lost a little of his mojo in front of the goal, when he took a long time, like Georges Mikautadze, to launch the machine this season.

This is how he found himself losing, little by little, his status as undoubtedly of the eleven Rhodanian, while the Georgian followed the opposite trajectory. Lacazette has not started any of the last five Europa League matches of OL, and has a good chance of making the pass of six on Thursday at Old Trafford. In Ligue 1, he sat three times on the bench in the last eight days. Additional detail which is not one: it is no longer even the only referent of the penalties, since Mikautadze took the last two when they were together on the lawn.

The fact remains that its 2025 year is more in its standards, at least statistically. He has scored 7 times on his last 9 appearances in Ligue 1, and accumulated 15 goals in all competitions. Far from his last two exercises, but close to his best statistical seasons in Arsenal. OL needed him to tear the draw against Manchester United on Thursday, then fold the match in Auxerre on Sunday. He may need more ammunition than before, but the general is far from having returned arms.

Lyon will need this during this week as crucial as it is exciting, from Old Trafford to Geoffroy-Guichard. The whole end of the Gones season can take another turn on Thursday evening. And the inheritance of Lacazette which can take another dimension. The attacker was already from the 2017 epic in C3, stopped in the semi-finals against Ajax, and in Lyon, everyone only dreams of doing better, for months already.

This quarter -final return from the Europa League is the first day of the last month of his life in red and blue. He necessarily had the idea of ​​reliving an evening like that against Roma, eight years ago, during an 8th finals where he had acquired the status of “general” thanks to a sublime strike. Since then, he has become a legend. He misses the big line at the charts. It inevitably goes through a big evening Thursday, in the theater of his dreams.