sonny delight spells brugge despair published: friday 7 december 2001, 0.09cet a sonny anderson hat-trick took olympique lyonnais into the uefa cup fourth round as they overturned a 4-1 deficit against club brugge kv.
olympique lyonnais 3-0 club brugge kv (aggregate: 4-4 - lyon progress on away goals) a classic hat-trick from sonny anderson secured a place for olympique lyonnais in the uefa cup fourth round after an immensely entertaining 3-0 victory over club brugge kv. the brazilian struck with his head and both feet as lyon produced a stirring performance to overturn a 4-1 first-leg deficit.
lunging header despite their heavy defeat in belgium, the home fans did not have to wait long for a glimmer of hope as lyon crafted a fine opening goal on 19 minutes. playmaker eric carrière twisted and turned to leave his marker for dead and his left-footed cross was met by a lunging anderson header which flew into the back of the net.
in off the crossbar jacques santini's men added a second only four minutes later. marc delmotte charged down the left flank and his centre found the unmarked anderson who unleashed an unstoppable thunderbolt which went in off the crossbar.
incessant pressure lyon were taking full advantage of the full width of the gerland stadium pitch, causing no end of problems to the brugge rearguard with delmotte on the left and sidney govou down the right wreaking havoc at will. the belgians had forced a number of corners but grégory coupet was yet to make a telling save.
reflex stop brugge started the second period more promisingly and would have scored on 57 minutes if luck had been on their side in an almighty penalty-area scramble. eight minutes later coupet pulled off a super save to deny andrés mendoza's prodded effort with his feet.
sublime football by this stage the home side were piling on the pressure and treating the gerland faithful to some scintillating one-touch football laced with delightful flicks. carrière was orchestrating matters and almost added the final touch to a wonderful interchange with patrick müller.
brazilian brilliance the decisive goal finally came deep into stoppage time and again it was the 31-year-old anderson who provided the end product to another lyon break, this time firing in a right-footed shot from an acute angle which flew into the bottom corner leaving dejan nemec with no chance.
history books lyon certainly had to do it the hard way but santini and his players can be proud of this result as the club finally managed to overturn a first-leg defeat in european competition at the eighth time of asking.