Coupe de la ligue 2019/20: Lyon vs Brest – tactical analysis

Lyon hosted Brest this past Wednesday evening in a quarter-final clash of this season’s Coupe de la Ligue. Just three places and four points separated these two sides in the Ligue 1 table, at the time of this contest. However, the gulf in quality between these two sides was evident in this match. 

Lyon ultimately advanced to the semi-finals, as they earned an impressive 3-1 win in this game versus Brest. Following Lyon’s impressive showing in this game, they can now look forward to a visit from Lille in the semi-final. 

On top of a gulf in quality, Rudi Garcia’s intelligent and effective tactics gave his Lyon side an advantage. In this tactical analysis piece, we will analyse how Garcia’s tactics helped his Lyon side to overcome the challenge of Brest in this quarter-final fixture. 

Lineups and formations

Garcia set the home side up in a 4-2-3-1 shape for this game. Lyon were almost at full-strength for this game, with the exception of a couple of players. Firstly, winger Maxwel Cornet received a rare start at left-back in this fixture. As Lyon were on top for most of the game, Cornet was deployed effectively as an attacking wing-back. 

Meanwhile, regular first-choice goalkeeper Anthony Lopes took to the bench for this game. Ciprian Tătăruşanu enjoyed a rare start in his stead.