On August 1, the first match of the new season in Lyon officially arrived.

Zhang Chaoqiang flew to the Czech Republic with the team to challenge the Czech team Boleslav away.

This is the first leg of the third qualifying round of the Europa League.

There are three teams in Ligue 1 that have played in the Europa League this season, with Guingamp going directly to the Europa League group stage as the winners of the French Cup, Saint-Etienne as the fourth team in Ligue 1 and Lyon in the third round of the Europa League qualification round as the fifth team in Ligue 1.

Lyon's opponent, Boleslav, finished third in the Czech league last season, and the overall strength is not strong.

Therefore, the attitude of everyone in Lyon towards this game is relatively relaxed, and they basically come to the away stadium with the mentality of training on behalf of the game.

Fournier arranged the 442 formation that has been running in recently, Lacazette, Zhang Chaoqiang and Fekir, and the front three all started.

'Zhang Chaoqiang played as a starting striker, the first time in his career in the Europa League.

"At the same time, Zhang Chaoqiang will become the first Chinese player to play in the Europa League for two consecutive seasons, and I hope he can perform well in the game and strive to win the first goal in Europe......"

Although Zhang Chaoqiang performed well against Juventus last season, he only created penalties and did not score directly.

Therefore, many domestic fans are paying close attention to Lyon's schedule, just waiting to see Zhang Chaoqiang's first European goal.

It's a pity that this time they were disappointed.

Lyon won comfortably on the road, taking a three-goal lead in the first half.

Alexandre Lacazette scored twice and Gonalones slotted home from distance.

In the second half, Umtiti recklessly missed a handball in the face of a counter-attack, which led to Boleslav pulling a goal back, which caused the smiling Fournier on the sidelines to restrain his smile.

Fournier is a defensive-minded coach and he was unhappy with the unnecessary conceded goals.

Fortunately, five minutes later, Umtiti scored with a header from a corner kick to complete the credit.

Lyon defeated Boleslav 4-1 away and basically sealed the promotion.

But domestic fans didn't think it was very good, because Zhang Chaoqiang had neither goals nor assists.

And Zhang Chaoqiang feels that his performance is not bad.

Alexandre Lacazette's first goal was his quick break down the flank, before passing back to Fekir, who set up Lacazette.

There was also the corner kick opportunity that Umtiti scored, which was also scored by him with a powerful volley.

On the plane back to Lyon, Fournier went to Zhang Chaoqiang to sit next to him for a while and recognized his performance.

"Zhang, you have a strong ability to read the game, which is another talent you have in addition to speed."

"As long as you can keep up at this level, I've got a place in my starting lineup."

Again, this is where Fournier differs from his predecessor.

In the past, Remy Gard said everything directly in the dressing room after the game, but now Fournier is different, he always likes to find an opportunity to talk to the players alone.

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After returning to France, Lyon continued to prepare for the new season.

On August 7, the second leg of the third round of the Europa League qualifying round arrived.

Since Lyon had already taken a 4-1 lead in the first leg, Fournier arranged for players to rotate in this game.

Alexandre Lacazette still started, but neither Zhang nor Fekir were in the starting line-up.

Fournier arranged for Algerian striker Benzia to partner Alexandre Lacazette.

Benzia was once a super-talented in Lyon's academy, and was once very famous, known as Benzema II.

Because he is of Algerian descent, like Benzema, he was born in the Lyon academy, and they both became famous at a young age.

In 2004, Benzema helped the French youth team win the Under-17 European Youth Championship as a key player, and won the reputation of the French Four Little Swans together with Nasri, Ben Arfa and Mane.

In 2011, Benzia, who had a strong resemblance, quickly became famous at the Under-17 World Youth Championships, and although he failed to help France reach the top, his five-goal performance in five games was good enough to seem to be even more impressive than Benzema's that year.

But they became famous at the same young age, and the paths of the two have been completely different since then.

Karim Benzema has had a smooth ride, as a substitute striker, as a main striker, then as the Ligue 1 Golden Boot, and then to the giants of the century, Real Madrid, who has now won the Champions League.

Benzia has been quite bumpy.

Soon after becoming famous at the World Junior Championships, he got a professional contract and then mentioned playing as a substitute in the first team, which is exactly the same as Benzema.

But Benzia's body simply couldn't adapt to the rhythm of the senior team, and he struggled quite a bit in the limited playing time.

The key is that his body is brittle, and he is easily injured at every turn.

So under Remy Garde, Benzia has always been a marginal substitute in the team, and whether he can be in the squad or not is often a matter of chance.

Now that Fournier is Lyon's manager, it seems that he wants to try his hand at rescue work to see if he can salvage the former supertalent.

Benzia is a player in '94 and won't turn 20 until next month.

If the rescue is done properly, it may not be impossible to achieve something.

It's a pity that Benzia got the chance to start, but he couldn't put in a convincing performance.

Physical confrontation is not dominant, and it is easy to lose the ball.

There is no advantage in speed, there is no direction in shooting.

Benzia clearly wanted to show himself, but he actually played a mess, and Lyon unsurprisingly conceded the first goal.

Fortunately, thanks to the goal of Ghazal, another Algerian player who came on as a substitute in the second half, Lyon drew 1-1 at home with Boleslav and successfully qualified for the Europa League qualifying play-offs.

Soon UEFA organized the draw for the European play-offs, and Lyon drew opponents from Eastern Europe, Romanian team Giurgi Astra.

Two other Ligue 1 teams also took part in the European play-off draw, with Saint-Etienne drawing Turkish side Astrabiç Sporting and Lille drawing Porto, one of the top three teams in the Portuguese Super League.

Lille, who finished third in Ligue 1 last season, naturally need to qualify for the Champions League.

And with Ligue 1 already falling to sixth place in Europe in terms of European points, Lille needs to start from the third round of Champions League qualification.

However, Lille's opponent in the third round was a simpler opponent of the Zurich Grasshoppers of Switzerland, and finally advanced easily with a score of 3:1 over two legs.

Now that the play-offs meet Porto, Lille is a real challenge.

The reason why the Portuguese Super League can surpass Ligue 1 in the European points ranking is because of the ferocious grabbing of points by Porto and Benfica.

If you compare the overall strength, Lille is really not necessarily comparable to Porto.

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The 2014/15 Ligue 1 season officially begins on Friday 8 August, the day after Lyon's Europa League qualifiers.

The opening game was the opening game when defending champions Paris Saint-Germain took on Reims, but the result was a bit of a surprise as Paris conceded two goals in the first half before winning a draw thanks to a brace from Ibrahimovic.

I have to say that Ibrahimovic during the Grand Paris period was a real thigh.

In fact, in the French Super Cup last weekend, Paris Saint-Germain also won the championship with Ibrahimovic's brace and defeated Guingamp 2-0.

In addition, if it weren't for Ibrahimovic's absence due to injury in last season's Carabao Cup final, Lyon might not have won the Grand Paris.

On Sunday, August 10, Lyon hosted their first-round league opponents, Rennes.

For Lyon fans, this is the real start of the new season.