Lyon begin pre-season focused on Champions League qualifiers | OneFootball

Lyon began pre-season on Monday morning. L'Équipe reports a five-week build-up geared entirely towards the Champions League third qualifying round first leg on 4 or 5 August.

Training started at 8.30am with a sizeable group minus six World Cup players: Pavel Sulc, Moussa Niakhaté, Nicolas Tagliafico, Ernest Nuamah, Matt Turner and Duje Caleta-Car. The last two are no longer in the project and are expected to secure new loans. Each will have 15 days off from their elimination.

From Thursday Lyon will run double sessions. The aim is to navigate the third qualifying round then the play-offs, with one tie each week, before Ligue 1 resumes the weekend of 22 with an away trip to Toulouse.

Three arrivals await official confirmation, midfielder Bidstrup from Salzburg, full-back Ouedraogo from Altach and forward Duranville from Dortmund, none can train before contracts are homologated on 1 July. The squad, now without Iaremtchouk whose option was not taken up and Hateboer who is out of contract, has been supplemented by youngsters, including winger Kail Boudache, who will join from Wednesday after leaving Nice to sign his first professional deal.

OL will play six friendlies across five weeks. Behind closed doors in Décines-Charpieu they face Mâcon 71 on 8 July at 18:30, then St Gallen on 11 July at the same time.

They host Servette Genève in Bourgoin-Jallieu on 15 July at 18:30, then head to a camp in Bavaria from 19 to 24 July with two opponents to be confirmed. The final warm-up is at Real Betis in Cádiz on 29 July.

Source: L'Équipe