(Violeau '78) (Luis Milla '66)
In a very even contest, Valencia got a valuable away goal but could not hang on for the win. Valencia got off to a good start when Claudio Lopez dispossessed Patrick Muller and put a dangerous cross through the box on 6 minutes but then largely drifted out of the game. Lyon took control and dominated the rest of the first 20 minutes. Shortly after the initial Lopez attack, Lyon broke on the counter and very nearly scored. The ball was fed to Sonny Anderson inside the Valencia pentalty area and only a desperate Canizares save at the Brazilian's feet prevented him scoring. Mauricio Pellegrino scrambled the clearance away. Lyon built more pressure. Anderson had a powerful shot parried and Juninho, arriving at the back post would have scored but Kily Gonzalez, tracking back, blocked the goal bound shot with Canizares beaten.
On 21 minutes Valencia began to work themselves back into the game. A nice passing move between Amedeo Carboni and Lopez led to a smart Coupet save. Then back came Lyon. Mark Vivien Foe launched a powerful run into the box and had his shot blocked by a sliding Miroslav Djukic. It was then Valencia's turn to attack but Gaizka Mendieta's shot from the edge of the box hardly troubled Coupet.
Foe was booked shortly after for a foul on Gerard at the edge of the box but the free kick was wasted and the half petered out. Even posession, a 5-3 shot count and nothing separating the sides at the break but Lyon having been much closer to scoring.
Valencia began brightly in the second half but pressed too high and with Carboni stranded in the Lyon box, a French counter attack set Govou free. He shot wastefully into the side netting. Just after the hour came Valencia's best spell. Only a brilliant one handed save by Coupet prevented Kily from scoring on 61 minutes after Angulo and Lopez had cut the Lyon defence apart.
Cuper made a substitution that seemed to indicate he was looking to see out a draw when he took Angulo off and brought on Luis Milla but instead the combative midfielder was instrumental in seeing Los Che take the lead. On 64 minutes he was on the end of another Valencia passing move to test Coupet and force a corner. From the corner, Pellegrino out jumped Edmilson. His header seemed to be dropping wide but Milla popped up at the back post to nod it into the net.
Lyon were rocking but just as it looked for likely that Valencia would score again and kill off the tie, the Lyon captain, Philippe Violeau hauled his side back into the contest. Gerard weakly lost possession in midfield and Violeau burst forward, picking up a flicked pass by Anderson to bustle between the Valencia defenders and put his shot away with 12 minutes remaining.
Milla joined Foe in the book shortly afterwards and Lyon could well have snatched the win with a late Juninho chance but 1-1 was a fair result, reflected in a 8-7 shot count.
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