Juninho confirms stars set to leave Lyon
Lyon sporting director Juninho confirmed there will be departures after the club's UEFA Champions League semi-final loss, though he is not worried about the Ligue 1 outfit.
After stunning Juventus and Manchester City en route to the final four, Lyon's memorable 2019-2020 European campaign came to an end after losing 3-0 to Bayern Munich on Thursday (AEST).
Lyon's early wastefulness was punished as Serge Gnabry's brace and a late goal from Robert Lewandowski guided Bundesliga champions Bayern through to Sunday's decider against Paris Saint-Germain.
While disappointed with the result, Juninho turned his attention to 2020-2021 amid speculation over the futures of Moussa Dembele, Houssem Aouar and captain Memphis Depay.
Dembele has previously been linked to Chelsea and Manchester United, Aouar is reportedly a target for the likes of Barcelona, Juventus and Manchester City, while Depay has emerged as a possible replacement for Jadon Sancho should he leave Borussia Dortmund.
"The aim now is to continue working, immediately with Ligue 1," Juninho, whose Lyon will not feature in the 2020-21 Champions League after finishing seventh at the time of Ligue 1 concluding due to the coronavirus pandemic, told RMC Sport. "There are no presents. We will have to work.
"If we continue like this, we will be back in this competition. When you are well paid, you need motivation every day, we are going to concentrate on Ligue 1. There are the basics.
"There will be departures, but I am not worried. When you have players who play very well in a competition like this, like Moussa and Houssem… We will have to show the same spirit to be back in the Champions League next season."
On the match itself, Juninho said: "We are all sad, it is not easy. But we are going out with our heads held high, I am proud of the players, the staff. We accept this. We respected our gameplan.
"You need a lot of luck and efficacy to beat a team like this. Maybe if we had scored one or two goals at the beginning of the match… I am proud of the squad, I thank the supporters for their incredible support, we felt a strong energy. I wish PSG good luck, that they show people that Ligue 1 is not what they think it is.
"We started well, with two or three chances, Karl [Toko Ekambi] hits the post. We had to at least score one. They caused us problems between the lines. The hardest thing was to play the ball out from the back. We saw that it did not work for RB Leipzig."
