AS NANCY vs. LYON

Lilo knocking down one of the three goals OL would score in week four vs. Nancy.

Week 20, L1 – Saturday, January 16, 2010
Stade Marcel Picot, Tomblaine, France.
3 P.M. EST(21:00CET, 20:00GMT)

Saturday, Lyon make their way to Lorraine to kick-off the second half of the season. The first half of the season was a mixed bag, with the second quarter of the campaign sputtering to an anemic last two months of play before the break. Lyon’s patch of rottten play began the first week of November and saw them go a dysmal 1-4-3 in league play, and an equally shameful 2-5-4 in all games through the winter break. OL are currently in sixth place, thirteen points off the league leaders Bordeaux. This is the lowest position Lyon have held at this point in the campaign, since the ‘01/’02 season.

But it’s a new year and after an uninspiring friendly in Tunisia, OL seemingly have gotten their footing back and are looking good after two- well maybe not the first one- convincing wins in the CdF and CdL, in route to the start of the second half. The offense is firing on all cylinders again- seven goals in three matches- and the defense…well, lets just say they at least they finally kept a clean sheet in the last match. I know, it’s just a pair of L2 squads, but to hell with it, I’m happy: two succesive wins is something we haven’t seen since the first week of October; we have signed a much need CB who is supposed to be solid, in the tranfer window, and I have a good feeling this little winning streak will carry over into league play- knock on wood.

So, we ride into Stade Marcel Picot on Saturday, looking to start things off with a bang.

Nancy’s Form: AS Nancy-Lorraine have been hovering either above or below the midpoint, virtually every week thus far this season. This week they happen to sit in the 12th spot. They have a 8-2-9 record and have (26) points- that’s four off of sixth place OL.

Les Chardons (the thistles) are going through a rough patch of their own: just three victories in their last nine matches. Their defense has been awful as of late- most of the season really- allowing seven goals- three to Toulouse(knocking them out of the CdL), and four to Lille- in their last two matches.

ASNL is bad at home: they are 3-1-5 at Marcel Picot, and have only scored (9) of their (26) goals on the season at home. Their defense is a shambles as well, with (14) allowed- (29) in total- that’s good enough for 17th in the table, fourth worst in the league. They’ve lost their last five matches at home. Their attack is ranked 9th with (26) scored. Their danger men are Youssef Hadji (9) goals- unlucky for us Morocco isn’t in the CAN and he’s not on international duty- and Paul Alo’o Efoulou (4) goals, who is away at the CAN with Cameroon.

History: OL has a losing record head-to-head vs. Nancy, 5-7-9 alltime. Lyon have only won five times in twenty-one visits to Stade Marcel Pichot, but they have won in their last four straight visits. OL took Les Chardons down at Gerland in week four, aside from that, ASNL haven’t beaten Lyon since March of 2000. This fact is of little reasurence though, since we haven’t won on the road since the last week of October, in that unconvincing 1-0 win at St. Etienne.

OUT: Clerc, Bodmer and Makoun are out; Govou is back. Dejan Lovren is following a personalized preparation regime and no word as to when he’ll be ready for first team action.

Nancy: Sami, Diabaté and Brison.

Le groupe nancéien : Bracigliano, Gregorini – Chrétien, André Luiz, Macaluso, Marange, Lemaître, Ouaddou – Bérenguer, Diakité, N’Diaye, Ca, Féret, Malonga, Hadji – Dia, Bakar, Curbelo.

Le groupe lyonnais: Lloris, Vercoutre – Cissokho, Boumsong, Cris, Réveillère, Gassama – Källström, Toulalan, Gonalons, Bastos, Ederson, Delgado, Govou, Pjanic – Gomis, Tafer, Lisandro Lopez.

Lloris
Reveillere-Cris-Boumsong-Cissokho
Pjanic-Toulalan-Kallstrom
Delgado-Lisandro-Bastos

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Category: Ligue 1