CdF: Lille vs. Lyon

By: Inara | March 4th, 2009

Sorry that this match preview is so late, but better late than never, right?

Anyway, today Lyon play the first of their two back to back matches against Lyon’s satellite club Lille. Since we’re already out of the Coupe de la Ligue, have a real race for the championship, and are major underdogs for even progressing to the next round in the Champions League…well, it would be very unwise of Lyon to turn their noses up at this chance of silverware.

March 4, 2009
Stadium Lille Métropole, Villeneuve-d’Ascq
2:45 PM (20:45 CET, 19:45 GMT)

Background info:

Lyon and Lille seem to play each other all the time – league games, cup games, friendlies…I bet they even have Football Manager tournaments against each other. Even in the off season, there always seems to be something brewing between the two clubs. Oh, and did I mention that Lille’s president is the brother of Lyon’s primary shareholder?

Since we’re so familiar with all their players, I’m not going to bother going through them again. Instead, I’ll cut straight to the stats. Right now, Lille are in 7th place and still very much in the running for a place in Europe next year. They’re doing better than everyone expected (I mean, they did lose their best players, their coach, and even their club doctor last summer!), and that is in great part to the management of Rudy Garcia. They have 11 wins, 10 draws, and 5 losses, with 36 goals scored and 28 conceded. Their two highest scorers are Michel Bastos and Ludovic Obraniak, with nine goals apiece (here is a depressing fact – those two combined have scored more goals than Lyon’s top two scorers, Karim Benzema and Juninho - and neither will be playing today).

Yes, you read that right. So far, Lille have scored the same amount of goals as Lyon. That’s a far cry from last season, when Lille were one of the least prolific teams ever. But they’ve also leaked a lot more goals than Lyon, so hopefully this is something that Puel will take advantage of.

Lyon info:

It is a much depleted squad that travels to Lille. Karim Benzema joins Fabio Santos, Sidney Govou, Anthony Reveillere, and Francois Clerc on the sidelines. Jeremy Toulalan is suspended (what good timing!) while Juninho has been left at rest.

Le groupe lyonnais: Lloris, Vercoutre, Hartock – Mensah, Gassama, Cris, Boumsong, Grosso, Kolodziejczak – Makoun, Ederson, Pied, Pjanic, Källström, Bodmer – Keita, Piquionne, Mounier, Tafer, Delgado.

But look at who is on the list. Cesar Delgado returns…and so does Mathieu Bodmer!!! Thimothee Kolodziejczak, Yannis Tafer, and Jeremy Pied also make their returns to the senior team.

Expected lineup:

One good thing about Puel is that he uses cup matches to try out different players and formations. While I don’t expect to see anything revolutionary, there will at least be some variety. We do know that Hugo Lloris will be starting from the bench.

Vercoutre
Gassama – Cris – Mensah – Grosso
Makoun – Kallstrom
Pjanic – Delgado – Mounier
Piquionne

It seems likely that Lamine Gassama will start at right back. I doubt Thimothee Kolodziejczak will start on the left simply because Lille has very speedy attackers, and Lyon being molested on both flanks would be counterproductive. In the center, Puel might chose to drop either Cris or Jean-Alain Boumsong to give John Mensah some much needed time in the middle of defense (he is a central defender, after all). I’ll be really pissed if I see Mathieu Bodmer back there.

In the middle, Jean II Makoun is sure to start, as is Kim Kallstrom. I’d love to see Bodmer start as well, but this is his first competitive game in months, so it might be better to bring him on in the second half.

Up front, Frederic Piquionne will get a start, though hopefully Yannis Tafer will come on for him later. Behind him, it’s most probable that Miralem Pjanic and Anthony Mounier will get some much needed game time, as will Cesar Delgado, who is returning from injury.

Viewing options:

Cross your fingers that there will be a good stream. You can also follow on liveblog – I recommend either Football365.fr or l’Equipe.

Expected result:

Break’s over, now it’s time for a win. 2-1 for Lyon.