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Pierre Sage returns to Lyon with Crystal Palace: “still a bit Lyonnais”
Pierre Sage comes back to the Groupama Stadium on Thursday night, this time on the Crystal Palace bench, two and a half years after saving OL from relegation. Lyon is still home, Fonseca enjoys the duel, and Brighton comes next.
by Lucas Morel · 2 min read
Crystal Palace are in Lyon on Thursday night for matchday two of the Europa League league phase, and for their manager it is a homecoming. Pierre Sage took the OL bench in December 2023 with the club bottom of Ligue 1 on 7 points from 14 games; 22 games later they had 46 points, a sixth-place finish and a Europa League spot snatched with a stoppage-time penalty on the final day. He returns to the Groupama Stadium as the opposition.
“I’m still a bit Lyonnais”
Sage kept his house in Lyon and the words that go with it. “When people ask, I say I’m Lyonnais even though I live in London,” he told RMC Sport. Sacked in January 2025, he spent a season at Lens, second in Ligue 1, and has already faced OL with them: a Coupe de France tie won on penalties (2-2, 4-5), then 4-0 in Lyon in May to close the season. “It feels like I left yesterday, and I missed you,” he added. He sees himself as a “standard-bearer for all the coaches who come from the bottom”, he told Le Monde, and what unsettled him most in England was driving on the left.
On Marseille he left the door open: “I’m a Lyonnais who manages Palace, like Genesio is a Lyonnais who manages OM,” he told Foot Mercato. Would he manage the Marseille club one day? “Maybe not just yet.” He also noted there is “another club you cannot manage when you are Lyonnais”; the French press reads Saint-Étienne into that one. He never says the name.
Fonseca relishes the duel
On the other bench, Paulo Fonseca called him a “very strong coach”: “I really enjoy watching his teams, it motivates me a lot, and I enjoy preparing the game to face him,” he said, quoted by So Foot. OL come off a 2-1 defeat at Lens and are without Loïs Openda, their only out-and-out striker, out for at least a month.
For the bettor, Palace’s week is packed: Lyon on Thursday night, then Brighton on Sunday. The Eagles sit 12th in the Premier League on 7 points from 6 games, and Sage’s English record reads eight matches, four wins, one draw and three defeats. At the Amex the market gives them a one-in-six chance (5.60 with 10BET), though they won their last visit 1-0 in February. I expect a rotated Palace, fresh legs in midfield to press three days after Lyon: that will decide the game, not nostalgia. 18+. Only bet what you can afford to lose.