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ZIMBABWE international forward, Tino Kadewere, has never seen his Olympique Lyon fans, inside the French club’s home ground, Groupama Stadium, since he joined the team.

Tomorrow, he will get that chance, when they play two friendly matches, inside their home ground.

Fans have been allowed to watch the two matches, against partner club, FC Villefranche Beaujolais and German club Wolfsburg.

‘’After beating Bourg-en-Bresse (5-1) in Bourgoin-Jallieu, Peter Bosz’s team continues its set of preseason friendlies this Saturday with two matches at Groupama Stadium, which will once again welcome the public in what is an eagerly awaited reunion,’’ the club said.

‘’A week, after a successful session at Décines, it is now the turn of Groupama Stadium to be the scene of an even bigger reunion.

‘’After endless months of waiting, Lyon supporters and players, will once again be able to celebrate together this Saturday, with two matches on the schedule.

‘’While several hundred supporters have already been on the trip to Bourgoin, and made themselves heard during the victory against Bourg-en-Bresse, they will come out in droves to let their voices be heard, getting out the flags to encourage their team (against) FC Villefranche Beaujolais and Wolfsburg, one of the Bundesliga’s top names.

“The occasion will be a great rehearsal for everyone, three weeks before the resumption of the season.’’

After the two matches, Kadewere and his teammates will leave for a week-long training camp in Spain.

“As part of their training camp in Spain (July 19-25, 2021), Olympique Lyonnais will face Villarreal on Thursday, July 22 at Pinatar Football Centre,’’ the club said.

“Winners of last season’s Europa League, having beaten Manchester United in the final, Unai Emery’s side will play in the Champions League, this season. 

“This match, which will take place behind closed doors, will be broadcast exclusively on OL Play and OLTV.’’

Lyon are under a new coach, Dutchman Peter Bosz, who spoke about their demolition of Bourg-en-Bresse.

“It was good that all the players had 45 minutes of action. There were no injuries, which is good news,’’ he said. “This game allowed us to work on our style of play. 

“It was good at times, other times not so good. There’s work to be done.

“Everything is going well, the players want to learn a different style of play, the most important thing is to win the matches. 

“I hope this comes with an offensive style of play, which is attractive to the fans, it’s not easy to play offensively and win matches, but it is possible. 

“It’s important to build from the back but, sometimes, you don’t have to take risks and play on the front foot. I like the game to be played very intensely.

“Pressing is an important thing when you want to play hard.’’

 Bosz also spoke about his squad.

‘’I count on all the players, there are still players, who are yet to come back. When they are here, I will be able to count on them,’’ he said. 

“We saw this with Moussa Dembele, he played well tonight, the transfer window? We are in contact with Juninho (sporting director) every day. 

“We are talking about the players who could come in and those who could leave. Onana is a good goalkeeper but we also have some good goalkeepers at OL. 

“I like goalkeepers, who are not afraid to play, with the ball at their feet. We saw this with Pollersbeck. I asked him to play the ball out from the back.’’

Midfielder, Maxence Caqueret, said he could hardly wait for a reunion with the fans. 

“This is great, we’ve been waiting for this, for almost a year-and-a-half, so we’re very happy to be back with the fans at Groupama Stadium. 

“We’ve missed them very much, they will help us a lot on the pitch, even if we had a taste of it last weekend.’’— Sports Reporter/Olympique Lyon