Goal from Jake O’Brien not enough as Lyon lose French Cup final to PSG 

A goal from Youghal's Jake O’Brien was not enough for Lyon, as they were defeated 2-1 by PSG in the Coupe de France final at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.

The Youghal native hit the back of the net in the 55th minute and halved the deficit facing Les Gones at the start of the second half, but a great comeback failed to materialise as the Parisians marked Kylian Mbappé’s last game for the club with another trophy.

PSG won, through goals from Fabián Ruiz and Ousmane Dembélé, and O’Brien’s first year in France ended in defeat against one of the best teams on the continent.

The defender played alongside a host of international stars on Saturday night. 

That group contained Nicolás Tagliafico, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 2022, and Nemanja Matić, a two time Premier League champion with Chelsea.

Their efforts weren’t enough, as PSG got the win and ended the season with their first domestic double since 2020.

Before the game, O'Brien had been given a special extended introduction to French President Emmanuel Macron during the pre-match ceremonies with a Lyon club official noting how O'Brien had surprised everyone at the club this year.

"Jake O'Brien. He did a two-week trial, to see if he was good enough and now he's a starter."

There’s now questions about O’Brien’s future in France, as Juventus are reportedly interested in signing the defender this summer.

The defeat, and sense of unknown, doesn’t take the shine off an excellent year for the defender, who moved to Lyon at the start of the season from Crystal Place.

O’Brien joined the club as an unknown centre back and French media reported that fans were not happy with the signing of a cheap defender with no experience of senior football in a top league.

The situation got worse when Lyon started the season with six defeats and four draws in their first ten games, and that form left them 18th in the table and fighting to avoid relegation.

O’Brien quite literally turned things around, by scoring the goal that gave the club their first win of the season, against Rennes at the start of November.

Lyon found form at the turn of the year, and the defender was rewarded with a first call-up to the Republic of Ireland senior men’s national team last March.

Les Gones kept picking up points with their Irish defender, and they slowly climbed up the Ligue 1 table.

Lyon finished the year in sixth place, and the club qualified for the league phase of next year’s UEFA Europa League.

This chapter comes just three years after O’Brien joined Crystal Place from Cork City, after lining out for his local club in the League of Ireland Premier Division.

The defender went from there to Swindon Town, and that was followed by a loan spell at R.W.D. Molenbeek in the second tier of the Belgian football pyramid.

O’Brien’s work was noticed by the Republic of Ireland U21s during their run to the qualifying play-offs for the European Championship, and he featured in a penalty shoot-out to Israel in September 2022.