Lyon coach Rudi Garcia credited their ‘Italian fitness coach’ Paolo Rongoni for victories over Juventus and Manchester City in the Champions League.
The pair met when Garcia was in charge of Roma in 2014-15, following him to Olympique Marseille from 2016-19 and then Lyon in October last year.
Olympique Lyonnais are the shock Champions League semi-finalists after beating Juve and Manchester City, but Garcia tipped his hat to Rongoni during his post-match interview with Sky Sport Italia.
Lyon coach Rudi Garcia credited their ‘Italian fitness coach’ Paolo Rongoni for victories over Juventus and Manchester City in the Champions League.
The pair met when Garcia was in charge of Roma in 2014-15, following him to Olympique Marseille from 2016-19 and then Lyon in October last year.
Olympique Lyonnais are the shock Champions League semi-finalists after beating Juve and Manchester City, but Garcia tipped his hat to Rongoni during his post-match interview with Sky Sport Italia.
“I was not worried about running out of steam, because we have an Italian fitness coach and I knew we’d hold out brilliantly.”
Sky later spoke to Rongoni himself to ask about the post-lockdown training regime.
“Everything was new after the coronavirus, as we hadn’t restarted the Ligue 1 season, so we had to adapt. I heard from a few colleagues in Italy and other countries to figure out what was happening.
“It was a little frightening before resuming, because there were injuries all over the place. In Germany and Italy in particular, thigh and calf strains were popping constantly.
“So we totally transformed our fitness work and it’s something we might try again in future. As Rudi said, we split eight weeks of training into two blocks. In the first, we worked hard physically, in the second we just played football.
“I also thank the assistant manager Claude Fichaux, who structured the technical exercises on the same rhythm as the fitness work. That’s where we made the difference.”
Considering only French and German teams are in the Champions League semi-finals, did finishing the season earlier and allowing more rest help them?
“I don’t know. My main concern was getting the players ready for the games with some minutes in their legs, because doing weights or sprints in training is not the same thing,” continued the Lyon staff member.
“Football is all about sprinting, braking, accelerating and slowing suddenly. I thought we’d have problems in the final 15-20 minutes, but for now that hasn’t happened yet. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
“The players worked really well during the lockdown, resuming with a hunger, tenacity and professionalism that this group didn’t have before.”