Genesio: Monaco result like a ‘dream’

Olympique Lyonnais boss Bruno Genesio has expressed pride in his team's remarkable comeback after taking over the reins at the end of last year.

Genesio was handed managerial duties at the club where he had operated as youth team coach at the time of Hubert Fournier's sacking. The handover happened at a time when the Ligue 1 outfit was mired in 9th position in the table, but the 49-year-old managed to harness the potential of several excellent young players to stage a remarkable comeback that culminated in a 6-1 victory over fellow second-place hopefulls Monaco this weekend.

The result means OL are virtunally certain of an automatic Champions League place, as only a loss in next week's final match of the season combined with a 20-goal win for Monaco would see a switch between the two clubs' positions.

"It's like a dream," Genesio told Ligue1.com. "It is beyond what we hoped.

"We started brilliantly and that liberated us for the rest of the game," said the OL boss continued. "I am proud to have achieved an objective which in January did not look like it was going to be easy.

"I am also proud of the work done with all my staff and at having given this team a soul again."

At the other end of the result was Monaco boss Leonardo Jardim, whose side now faces pressure from Nice to retain their third spot in the league table.

"The match had barely started and from their first two attacks they scored two goals," he lamented.

"Then came the red card and the match was finished," he said, referring to striker Lacino Traore's 24 minute sending off for seeing a second yellow card.

"After that we lost hope. It is up to us to maintain the energy needed to hold onto third."