FC LORIENT(BRETAGNE SUD) vs. LYON

By: John | January 20th, 2010

lyonlorient
Week 21, L1 – Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Stade Yves Allainmat/ Stade du Moustoir, Lorient
1:00EST, 12:00CST(19:00CET, 18:00GMT)

Wednesday, Lyon head up to dreary Brittany to take on the always-a-potential-thorn-in-the-side squad of Lorient. This will be the first of two meetings this month, as the two teams will face off again on the 26th Jan for the quarter finals of the CdL. It should be a tough match as Le Stade Moustoir will be “packed” with a recored 16,000 spectators expected to be on hand.

After a seemingly nice start with three straight wins, eight goals scored, and two conceded, you’d think Les Gonnes would be back in business, but the squad snuck-out another pathetic win despite rotten play this weekend: two late goals by Cris- who is at least making-up for his putrid defensive play- and the kid Gonalons who needs to stop scoring goals, because some big teams are starting to take notice of him. I didn’t see the end of last weekend’s Nancy match, but read the comments and it looked all downhill from the start of the play. OL limped to another unispiring win, remeniscent of the victory against Boulonge before the break, when the squad and Puel were booed of the pitch, despite a 2-0 victory. Anyway, back to the long march till the end of the season, and all I can say is, at least we’re winning again. We currently sit in fifth- which is mirical in and of itself- tied with fourth place Marseille for points, but lagging behind on GD.

LORIENT’S FORM: FC Lorient are perennnial midtablers, and have spent most of the season on the better side of the ten spot. They are led by their superb coach Christian Gourcuff- who I am hoping OL would try to entice into filling the void left by Houllier, but that story is still developing – who has his squad playing solid football and has, with very little resources, turned Lorient into a formidable squad that few L1 sides savor locking horns with. Les Merlus are a squad that, since their return to the top flight in the ‘06-’07 season, show no intention of setting foot anywhere near the relegation zone again.

Lorient are currently in eighth place in the tables with a 9-5-6 record. They’ve amassed (20) points and a (+10) GD, that’s three better than OL. Their offense is 5th with (32) scored, averaging (2.2) goals per game- Lyon are 3rd with (33)- and Les Merlus’ defense is ranked 8th with (22) allowed; OL’s in 13th with (26).

Their top scorers are: Kévin Gameiro- 5th highest scorer in the league- (8), Marama VAHIRUA (7), and Olivier Monterrubio (4). Apart from being porlific scorers, these three men are also a danger when it comes to assists. Vahirua has the second highest assist tally in the league with (7), and Gameiro and Monterrubio both trail closly with (4) each.

For today’s purposes, FC Lorient are ranked 7th at home, with (19) points and 5-4-1 record; (22) scored and (11) allowed. Lyon are 3rd on the road; (16) points with a 4-4-1 record, (17) scored and (13) allowed.

FCLBS have turned around a mini-dry spell, having won two straight of their last seven, 2-2-3.

Lorient don’t tend to perform well against the top-notch teams this year: they only have two wins vs. top ten teams- Lille and Valenciennes- under their belts. Against the rest of the big boys, they either draw or lose: two draws and six loses vs. teams that were either in the top ten at the time of their meetings or are there now.

History: Lyon have only met Les Merlus on six occasions and out of those, OL have taken four victories, one draw and one defeat(4-1-1). The most recent match took place in week five of this season, and saw OL manage a narrow 1-0 victory at Gerland.

Out: Clerc, Bodmer, are out injured; Dejan Lovren continues his conditioning and Puel says he’s in no hurry to throw him into the fray; Anderson is resting, probably saving his energy for his debut against RealM.

Le groupe lorientais: F. Audard , L. Cappone; M. Baca. B. Genton, L. Koscielny, A. Le Lan, S. Marchal, F. Sosa;
M. Amalfitano, S. Diarra, P. Ducasse, J. Fanchone, Y. Jouffre, A. Mvuemba, G. Penalba; K. Gameiro, O. Monterrubio, J. Sakuwaha.

Injured: M. Barthelmé (adducter), Y. Diané, J. Morel (adducter), M. Vahirua (thigh); Gameiro is questionable.

Yazid Mansouri is on international duty (Alg., CAN).

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

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