Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon faced off this Saturday at Groupama Stadium for the 23rd day of Ligue 1 2024-2025. The match ended in a 2-3 Parisian victory (video highlights Lyon/PSG). After the match, the Lyon striker spoke in the mixed zone. He emphasized his regrets at not having played as early in the first half as he had in the second.
La réaction de Rayan Cherki après la défaite de l’OL face au PSG (2-3) #OLPSG #OL pic.twitter.com/3GUgf1GAXh
— But! OL (@But_Lyon) February 23, 2025
Cherki “That’s when you can have regrets.”
Any regrets ?
Obviously, when you see the second half we managed to pull off, the ingredients we put in, I think we can regret our first half. We need to keep up the momentum from the 2nd half. We’ve shown that we’re a team that goes forward, scores and wins.
What were the problems in the 1st half ?
We watched too much of the game, myself in particular. We were waiting too long for a mistake or something. That’s something we need to work on. We know that Paris are a very good team, who play the ball very well.
We should have let ourselves go, played faster and harder, and tried to hurt them like we did in the second half. That’s where we can have regrets.
What explains the difference ?
It’s a bit of everything: confidence, tactics, all sorts of things. I don’t know why we didn’t use the same ingredients. We’ve got to keep going in the second half, there’s a lot of positives.
Cherki “In the last 20, 45 minutes, we pushed and they were a bit in doubt.”
Was it impossible to get the block up in the first half ?
There’s nothing impossible in soccer. We had to be a little more courageous, a word used by the coach at half-time. That was also true in the second half.
Were you too cautious ?
We weren’t over-cautious, even if we did play in a particular way. We had instructions that could have been more effective. But we’re going to focus on the positive: the second half. When you see the level of Paris and the fact that we were able to make them doubt, it’s positive. (…) In the last 20 or even 45 minutes, we pushed hard and they were a little doubtful.
