
Key facts
Club: Olympique Lyonnais | Opening: 1926 | Capacity: 40,494 seats
History and description
Stade Gerland was built over most of the 1920s and officially opened in May 1926. It was designed as a stadium for multiple sports and during its first decades few football was played at the then still oval-shaped stadium.
It took until 1950, when Olympique Lyonnais moved in, that the stadium slowly converted into a proper football stadium.
In the 1960s, the city of Lyon played with the idea to construct a new 85,000-stadium in order to attract the Olympics, however these plans never materialised.
In 1980, Stade Gerland set its record attendance when 48,552 spectators attended a match versus local rivals Saint-Etienne.
Soon after, two new stands at both sides got built with the perspective of the Euro 1984 Championships, during which Stade Gerland hosted one group match and the semi-final between Spain and Denmark (1-1).
In 1986, Stade Gerland hosted the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup between Dynamo Kiev and Atlético Madrid (3-0).
Lyon got chosen as one of the host cities of the 1998 World Cup, and as a result two new stands at the ends were built that gave the stadium its rectangular shape. Works were completed in 1996.
During the World Cup, Stade Gerland hosted five group matches and the quarter-final between Croatia and Germany (3-0).
... jedna jako draga utakmica. Nadam se da će mi ova biti još draža... Ide se... FF