Bruno Guimaraes celebrates significant five years milestone – Interesting circumstances | OneFootball

For Bruno Guimaraes, 21 February 2020 was a very big deal.

Exactly five years ago today.

Bruno Guimaraes played his very first competitive football in Europe.

The then 22 year old had arrived in Europe a few weeks earlier, signing from Brazilian club Athletico Paranaense. Lyon paying £18m for the midfielder.

On 21 February 2020 the day came, Bruno Guimaraes playing his first match for Lyon, starring in a 2-0 away win in Ligue 1 over Metz.

A first Champions League appearance quickly followed, Bruno starting in a 1-0 win over Juventus.

A Ligue 1 win over Saint-Etienne followed on 1 March 2020. Then on 4 March 2020, Bruno played in a 5-1 home defeat in the French cup to PSG, before a 1-0 Ligue 1 defeat away at Lille on 8 March 2020.

However, less than six weeks after arriving in Europe, disaster struck for Bruno Guimaraes and indeed everybody.

COVID hit.

The Ligue 1 matches were suspended on 13 March 2020 until further notice.

Then on 28 April 2020, it was announced that the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 campaigns would not resume, after the French Government banned all sporting events until further notice.

Whilst Ligue 1 didn’t start up again in that 2019/20 season, the Champions League did.

Bruno Guimaraes starting three more Champions League matches that 2019/20 season in August 2020, playing in a 21-1 defeat to Juventus, a 3-1 victory over Man City in the quarter-finals, before losing in the Champions League semi-finals 3-0 to Bayern Munich.

Bruno Guimaraes playing very few matches in his first season in Europe but a very eventful campaign nonetheless.

Exactly two years after arriving at Lyon, Bruno Guimaraes moved on to Newcastle United, but that is a whole other story…