Should Lyon overcome the tricky third qualifying round return against Sparta Prague tonight (9 PM)—despite last Tuesday’s away loss (1-2)—and then navigate the playoffs against Fenerbahçe (TUR) or Sturm Graz (AUT) on August 18-19 and 25-26, all ambitions will become possible. During the 2009-2010 season, one of the club’s deepest Champions League runs (reaching the semifinals, as in 2019-2020), Lyon advanced through the playoffs, sweeping Anderlecht (BEL, 5-1, 3-1) in August 2009.

For now, however, a fourth summer European failure looms ominously over the Rhone Valley club. After defeats to Maribor (SLO) and Real Sociedad (ESP) in the Champions League in 1999 and 2013 respectively, and a humiliating Europa League exit to Astra Giurgiu (ROU) in 2014, we recount these three blunders—with the 2013 setback being less painful than the first and especially the last, which could only be described as “farce-like.”

Fresh off signing Brazilian striker Sonny Anderson from FC Barcelona for 125 million francs (€18 million)—a colossal sum at the time—Lyon, who had finished third in Ligue 1, approached the Champions League with high hopes. Their debut in Europe’s premier competition turned into a disaster against the modest Slovenian side NK Maribor. Bernard Lacombe’s side were stunned at home (0-1) in the first leg of the third qualifying round on August 10, 1999, by a late Filipovic strike (89th minute) despite dominating play.

Away in Slovenia on August 25, matters worsened as Lyon suffered a 0-2 defeat, with Simundza (24th minute) and Balajic (45th minute) scoring. The display was abject, featuring players like Anderson, Tony Vairelles, Alain Caveglia, Vikash Dhorasoo, and Grégory Coupet. The following day’s headlines in local press read: “Lyon, the summer flop.”

Relegated to the UEFA Cup, Lyon were eliminated in the round of 16 by Werder Bremen (GER, 3-0, 0-4) after overcoming HJK Helsinki (FIN, 5-1, 1-0) and Celtic Glasgow (SCO, 1-0, 1-0). In Ligue 1, Lyon finished third again in May 2000, also being eliminated from both domestic cups in the quarterfinals.

Fourteen years later, Lyon had transformed into a far more formidable side, having secured seven Ligue 1 titles (2002-2008) and reached the Champions League semifinals in 2010 (eliminated by Bayern Munich, 0-1, 0-3). Yet in August 2013, the Rhone Valley club—who had finished third in Ligue 1 in May—faced another summer European disappointment. After dispatching Grasshopper Zurich (SUI) in the third qualifying round (1-0, 1-0), Lyon encountered Real Sociedad in the playoffs, a club they had previously deemed too frail to include in their youth academy years earlier.

Antoine Griezmann exacted his revenge in spectacular fashion. In the first leg on August 20 at the Stade de Gerland, the French forward opened the scoring (17th minute) with an acrobatic left-footed volley, making the front pages the next day. Real Sociedad won 2-0, with Seferovic adding a second (49th minute). In the return leg at Anoeta on August 28, the pattern repeated as Lyon, now managed by Rémi Garde and featuring players like Samuel Umtiti, Yoann Gourcuff, Alexandre Lacazette, and Nabil Fekir, fell to a 0-2 defeat, Carlos Vela scoring twice (67th, 90th+1 minutes).

Relegated to the Europa League, Lyon reached the quarterfinals (eliminated by Juventus Turin, 0-1, 1-2) but finished fifth in Ligue 1, were knocked out of the Coupe de France in the round of 16, and lost the Coupe de la Ligue final to PSG (1-2).

“We got hammered by a team of nobodies we didn’t even know!” With his characteristic bluntness, the late Bernard Lacombe, then vice-president and special advisor to president Jean-Michel Aulas, perfectly summed up Lyon’s disastrous summer of 2014 in the Europa League playoffs. The club suffered a humiliating elimination at the hands of the modest Romanian side Astra Giurgiu, despite a 1-0 away win in the second leg on August 28, courtesy of Jordan Ferri’s strike (23rd minute).

In the first leg at Gerland on August 21, Lyon had already contrived to lose 1-2 despite taking the lead through Steed Malbranque (25th minute). They were undone by Fatai (71st minute) and Budescu’s penalty (81st minute). The squad, featuring Corentin Tolisso, Christophe Jallet, and Maxime Gonalons, regrouped to finish second in Ligue 1 in May 2015, securing a return to the Champions League. But that summer of 2014 disaster—easily the worst of the three—brought an end to eighteen consecutive seasons of uninterrupted European competition for Lyon.