Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Friday, May 1, 2026 at 11:37 pm
The Lyon players are approaching the biggest event of their season this Saturday, hoping it will lead to a second one in three weeks (on May 23 in Oslo, against Barça or Bayern).
There will be over 20,000 people on Saturday at 3 pm at Groupama Stadium to support Olympique Lyonnais in their Champions League semi-final return leg against Arsenal. Although the English European champions won the first leg 2-1 due to two huge mistakes by the Rhodaniennes, the gap is still recoverable. According to the American Lindsey Heaps, one of the six thirtysomethings in the squad (along with Wendie Renard, Christiane Endler, Kadidiatou Diani, Ashley Lawrence, and Ada Hegerberg), “the mindset is really important”: “We know what we have to do, and we have to do better.”
“Show our winning culture”
The American acknowledges that Arsenal has very talented players, especially in midfield, “but so do we”: “We know we have to control the match, focus on our game and better control the spaces. We have to show what the team is capable of, show our winning culture. In Lyon, we take each game one at a time, training session after training session. Winning the Champions League is not only an individual goal but also a collective one.”
Since their first continental final in 2010, which also marked the introduction of the Champions League (previously, the first eight editions of the European Cup did not bear this reference name), Lyon has only experienced two years without a presence in the final: 2014 and 2015. So, after the heavy defeat by this same Arsenal team last year (1-4 loss in Lyon after a 1-2 victory in London), there is no way they will allow it to happen again. It will be a moment to remember that Jonatan Giraldez’s players had won on Arsenal’s field in the opening of the new group phase (1-2, see video above) now modeled after the boys’ format.
