How was your Wednesday night?Did you spend it being mercilessly barracked by 55,000 Lyon supporters, then, after your team won, did you swear, celebrate, and goad pretty much everyone in a volatile stadium, sparking a mass brawl and almost causing a riot?If you answered yes, your name is Matteo Guendouzi.The Fenerbahce midfielder, 27, counts Arsenal and Lazio among his former clubs, but the only relevant part of his career history on Wednesday was the fact that he used to play for Marseille, Lyon’s bitter rivals.Guendouzi featured for Marseille for a couple of full seasons, playing 73 times in Ligue 1, and that’s all it takes to stir hatred in the Choc des Olympiques (Clash of the Olympiques… as in their full names, Olympique de Marseille and Olympique Lyonnais).For some context as to how deep that rivalry runs, you may remember in 2023 that Lyon manager Fabio Grosso was left battered and bleeding by flying rocks hurled at his team’s bus by Marseille fans. The match was postponed. Violence is never far from this match and often means visiting fans are banned from attending.But back to Guendouzi. It started in the warm-up…
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— arsiv (@brknstock1) August 26, 2026Guendouzi either wasn’t particularly chuffed about cameras filming him jogging during his warm-up, or that was his response to getting some stick.His new Fenerbahce team-mate Mason Greenwood, another ex-Marseille man, was also booed by the Lyon supporters, but Marseille fan Guendouzi was the centre of attention.It was a high-stakes match, too, with Champions League qualification on the line and, after a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Turkey, Lyon were desperate to use home advantage to reach the competition for the first time since their unlikely run to the semi-finals in 2019-20.However, Fenerbahce have a pretty decent team, also featuring Romelu Lukaku, Ederson, N’Golo Kante, Nathan Ake, Marco Asensio and Kerem Akturkoglu, and they triumphed 2-1 on the night (3-2 on aggregate), with English left-back Archie Brown’s first-half goal proving decisive.Did Lyon take it well? No.Did Guendouzi calmly and respectfully celebrate the victory with a few handshakes and back-slaps? Also no.Put simply, Guendouzi, all by himself, very nearly started a riot by continuously and relentlessly provoking the Lyon fans with wild, in-your-face celebrations.Here’s him making the ‘Jul’ sign — a gesture associated with the Marseille rapper which spells out his name, J-U-L, by pointing index and middle fingers upwards.Guendouzi and captain Milan Skriniar celebrate (Photo: Benoit Pavan/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)Missiles rained down from the stands as the Lyon supporters became more and more enraged, but that didn’t stop Guendouzi.The provocation, if anything, got worse with this celebration.
