Europa League Performance Insights: How Lyon played through the pressure at Manchester United
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
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UEFA Technical Observer Steve Cooper analyses how Lyon played out under pressure with eleven and ten men in their UEFA Europa League quarter-final decider at Manchester United.
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UEFA Technical Observer Steve Cooper analyses the UEFA Europa League quarter-final second leg between Manchester United and Lyon, following on from Friday's article, and gives useful advice for any coach or player on how to deal with numerical inferiority.
How Lyon played out under pressure from United
In the first video we see how Lyon played out when they had 11 men.
"Lyon committed to trying to play through them," explains Cooper. "If you look at when they play with short passes, they build through United's six-man press, and once they play through, what is very telling is how quickly Lyon then get players involved in the attack. When the left winger Corentin Tolisso gets the ball and he tucks inside, there are six players ahead of the ball. They build up with a lot of players, they play through and then everybody very quickly joins the attack.
"The ball is near Lyon's by-line at the start of the video, yet within 30 seconds they are close enough to the United goal to score. Sometimes you can try to play through an opponent, but you don't have enough players to continue the attack and it can break down. What I like about this is that once Lyon have played through, they've continued with the whole team to progress the attack to join in and get ahead of the ball."
The sequence shown had 28 passes, the second most in the game and a sustained period of controlled possession. Lyon also had the longest sequence with 30 passes as they went to create a crossing situation with the finishing opportunity for Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
Graphic 1 shows the challenge Lyon faced and how they looked to overcome the challenge of being a man down. They kept width and height while having two players trying to connect things in the middle.
How Lyon played after being reduced to ten players
"In the second video we see how Lyon kept their height and width having gone down to ten – making the pitch big and continuing to occupy United's back five which allowed them to continue to build," explains Cooper, who notes how this also made something of a stick-or-twist quandary for United coach Rúben Amorim. "United's dilemma is whether to go 3v3 in defence and get the extra man in the press to win the ball, or 4v3 and keep an extra player at the back just in case.
"Lyon did well in continuing their gameplan. By making the pitch bigger, they allowed for shorter and longer passes as they switched the ball around with one- and two-touch play. They kept the ball a little longer as they didn't want to lose possession. The difference was that once Lyon had got through the press, they had one fewer player to attack with, but they compensated well. There's always context to a game. It was 2-2 when the game went to extra time, but Lyon continued to commit numbers, to drive forward and they scored two more goals with ten men, this one from Rayan Cherki."
Graphic 2 shows Lyon's passes that started in their own half in extra time. It illustrates the variety of short and longer passes created. A short pass led to Lyon’s third goal, and a long pass to the penalty which brought the fourth as Lyon fought for a loose ball which saw Malick Fofana connecting with Alexandre Lacazette before he moved into the box and won a penalty.
Coach's tip on building from the back
The first question to ask is: 'Why are we building from the back?' In this situation, the ‘why?’ was to bring out as many Manchester United players as they could to press, and to back themselves to commit to playing through them.
"Coaches coach the team to build from the back, but the players need to understand the why and the how," explains Cooper. "The how is the tactics to it, so the positioning of the team and the principles. They know why they are doing it, but what's the next phase? They make playing out from the back productive. It's not for building-up's sake; they're building up to get through United's press to leave five, six or seven United players behind the ball, so that they can continue the attack in big spaces, and it turns then into a fast attack. Lyon remain as a team; they go from the build-up phase as a team to the final-third phase as a team.
"There's a mental bravery and a team commitment to this tactic; there's a risk and a reward. Players must be able to receive the ball under pressure, to connect as a team, to have good personality and have passing skills to find the spare man and play forward."
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