Fonseca calls himself a "shit coach" after Lyon's cruel Champions League playoff elimination

Paulo Fonseca lost his temper at the press conference after Olympique Lyonnais’s elimination by Fenerbahçe in the Champions League playoff on Wednesday evening at Groupama Stadium. Defeated 1-2 at home and eliminated 2-3 on aggregate, the Lyon side see their hopes of returning to Europe’s biggest stage after a six-year absence slip away.

Questioned about his team’s passivity in the first half and the lateness of his substitutions while Lyon chased the game, the Portuguese coach responded with biting irony: “It’s always the same question. But I’m used to it. What can I say? At the end of the match, it’s very easy to talk about substitutions. It’s always the same thing. Maybe that’s why I’m a shit coach. That’s the explanation.”

Lyon’s regrets are nonetheless immense. Trailing 0-2 in just four minutes in the first half, the Rhône side found their rhythm after Malick Fofana’s goal reduced the deficit, but their comeback was stifled by two goals ruled out by VAR — one for offside, the other for a foul — and by persistent bad luck that sealed their fate.

Fonseca himself measured the financial and sporting consequences of this elimination for the club. “I’m the coach, but I understand the situation. For the club, the Champions League was very important to have the possibility of continuing with the same players. Maybe now we need to sell. That’s the reality,” he acknowledged, lucid about the economic decisions that loom ahead.

Deprived of the revenue and exposure of the group stage, Lyon now approach the Ligue 1 season in a weakened context, with a squad whose several key players could be forced to leave as early as this winter or next summer.