In Garde We Trust – The Olympico.

By: Nikhil Apte | February 5th, 2012

Olympique de Marseille vs. Olympique Lyonnais

Stade Vélodrome – Week 22, Ligue 1.

The swords are drawn.

The only two teams in French League alive in four championships play in The Olympico at Stade Vélodrome. Not just another League match, but one that will set expectations for greater games to come.

OM-OL

Having never won an L1 game Away to a team coached by Didier Deschamps (Monaco and Marseille), Lyon still does look confident under Rémi Garde. Post thesemifinals of the Coupe de La Ligue, he said, “We missed a lot of chances in the first half and we were in trouble. But without the difficulty before the pleasure, the pleasure would have been less. The squad was great. Cris came back from injury and was very tired and he signaled to me that he wouldn’t be able to go through until the end.” Cris was substituted in the 86^th minute and the substitutes turned the game around. Briand scored immediately and Clément Grenier orchestrated the proceedings.

Lyon challenges OM in today’s match with a point better in the table, but Marseille is still seen to be in a better form and will make for a good competition. In the transfer season, OM looks at a ‘So long!’ from Lucho González as he moved back to Porto. They do still have Loïc Rémy in the bag and the coming season looks peachy if I may use that term.

Marseille lost Mathieu Valbuena (11 assists in League thus far) in their last match to two yellow cards for taking a quick freekick while the referee had told teammate Benoît Cheyrou to wait for the whistle for the kick. The team is unbeaten in the last 7 games including 4/4 wins in the latest games, while Lyon has lost 6 of their last 8 Away games. However the last 8 goals scored for Marseille against Lyon have all come in the second half. If Lyon plans to reach the Coupe de la Ligue finals with bragging rights, they better do some good in the first half. Aggressive defending is on Doctor’s orders for the game.

8-novembre-2009-hugo-lloris-steve-mandanda-se-serrent-main-a-78589

Bakary Koné has come back with some horrible memories with his CAN tour recently scoring one own goal against Ivory Coast, punching the Angola captain and being the culprit for an Angola goal in 2-2 draw. Let us hope he is determined to keep it behind and focus on the key matches Lyon has lined up as the team welcomes him back. Gonalons will hug his CDM spot and not let go!

Lyon host the next three games, playing Bordeaux next in Coupe de France Round of 16 match on 8^th Feb, SM Caen in L1 on 11^th and the big Round of 16 Champions League match against Apoel FC on the 14^th. I’ll get the roses if Lyon sends them to their graves.

As Lyon’s hit list gets hot, let’s move to The Middle East, which has much to rejoice and cheer with the new Emirati entry into the Ligue 1. Hamdan Al Kamali must have had a visual treat, witnessing the 4-2 win defeat of Lorient immediately upon his arrival. Yes boy, that’s how we roll! Lyon is currently looking forward to possibly acquiring more talent from the Middle East and conducting winter training sessions there.

Lyon also made a new partnership agreement with the Chinese Football Association, two Chinese U-16 players who will join in July, and spend all of next year with the U-16 team at the academy. In return, OL youth scouts Florian Maurice and Gérard Bonneau will return to China to help develop specialized coaches.

Who’s in the Lineups and Who’s unable to read this cuz of SOPA?

John Mensah (Ghana) is away at the Africa Cup of Nations. Bakary Koné (Burkina Faso) and Sidy Koné (Mali) are both available again.

Rémy Vercoutre (foot) and Dejan Lovren (Achilles) are out. Cris (thigh) made an unbearable return against Lorient in midweek.

André Ayew and his younger brother Jordan are away with Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations. However Centre-half Souleymane Diawara (Senegal) and Charles Kaboré (Burkina Faso) are both back available again

André-Pierre Gignac will likely miss this one after a recent groin operation, while Stéphane Mbia (thigh) is out.

Possible Team Lineups-

Marseille: Mandanda – Azpilicueta, Diawara, Nkoulou, Morel – Kaboré, Diarra, Cheyrou – Amalfitano, Brandao, Rémy

Lyon: Lloris – Réveillère, B. Koné, Umtiti, Cissokho – Briand, Gonalons, Källström, Bastos – Lisandro, Gomis

We need this win!

Allez Les Gones!!

Some Related Lyon Posts:

Category: Ligue 1

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sdzsdz

it looks like we're playing 4-2-3-1 today with cris and kone at cb, kallstrom and fofana and cdm, ederson gourcuff and lacaszette in attacking mid and licha as a lone striker.
it looks good, except cris in the back worries me. but garde's probably resting umtiti.
allez!
Tibor Šimunčić

I wish that Garde is bit bolder and not afraid to use a sub to bring up the tempo and quality.
Ronan

Lyons defence always looks uncomfortable with the ball,the midfielders possesion is a bit poor-I think Gourcuff should be given a chance to start-he hasnt done anything in his time here,but he wont on the bench.
Megame

Indeed, we have to wonder what Garde's plans for Gourcuff are. He's been warming up during the game for half an hour but he didn't come on... As Grenier's performance yesterday wasn't exactly stellar (but the miserable conditions and the frozen pitch certainly played an important part), Gourcuff could have been given the nod... I have to suppose his training sessions are not as good as Grenier's...
lefutur

i would have preferred if Lacazette or Ederson had come on at some point to inject some fresh legs. Briand did well but perhaps Laca could have made the difference at the end.
sdzsdz

not a bad result. thank god so many dangerous marseille players were missing. could've really hurt us.
still in the podium race :-) allez!
Megame

Game over, 2-2... Both teams can be reasonably happy with this result, as the game was very open and could have gone either way... But both teams only score 1 point, while PSG and Montpellier continue their progression...
Russ

2nd half reminded me of a practice match!!!!! Both teams seemed to have completely lost their edge. All in all, I'll take the point. We weren't awful tonight and we deserved the point. Midfield play has to improve though offensively. Passing needs to be quicker and tidier
Megame

Crap.. yet another opportunity, stopped by Mandanda
Megame

Briand, almost...
sdzsdz

grenier needs to wake up. lot of awful touches so far by him
Megame

Marseille dominating now. But Lyon can still hurt them.
Megame

Umtiti gets a yellow... rough contest with Kabore
Megame

Grenier about to come on. He's been doing good to the team when he come on in Lorient. Gomis leaves the pitch; that's strange.
Megame

Gomis offside... again.
Megame

Lyon looking more dangerous now.
Megame

Gomis.. but on the wrong side of the side net.
Megame

If Marseille win tonight they'll overtake us and will be 4th in the Championship, Lyon being 5th.
Megame

The passivity of our defense is really getting to my nerves, so I can only imagine Garde's...
Megame

For those who couldn't watch:
1st goal: Kabore passes to Brandao who deflects it for Cheyrou to conclude. Cissokho can't get it, Lloris can only stare at the ball going in.
2d goal: Brandao, left alone by our defense (that how the four guys there are called, not what they actually do) gets a nice cross from Amalfitano and crucifies Lloris.
3d goal: Kallstrom kicks a corner to Briand who sends a clever flick towards Gomis who volleys it right into the net.
4th goal: a cross from Cissokho is deflected by Azpilicueta; Diawara tries and rejects it, nut only for the ball to bounce on his leg and go directly into Mandanda's net.
sdzsdz

how come there are so many empty seats in the stadium? is there construction going on?
Megame

Yes, I think they're renovating/expanding the stadium bit by bit.
Megame

Half time: Wow. 2-1 (Gomis) then 2-2 (own goal from Diawara)!!!
sdzsdz

woo! haha 2-2!
sdzsdz

here we go. marseille gol. 2 0. very easy.
Megame

Gomis, almost... For the second time..
sdzsdz

here we go. gol marseille.
Megame

Crap. 1-0 Cheyrou..
Tibor Šimunčić

Brandao was offside.
Russ

nvm heres a link i found for everyone: http://www.tvoo.eu/watch-ligue...
Megame

The lineups

MARSEILLE : Mandanda - Azpilicueta, Diawara, Nkoulou, Morel - Kaboré, Diarra, Cheyrou - Amalfitano, Brandao, Rémy.
LYON : Lloris - Réveillère, Koné, Umtiti, Cissokho - Briand, Gonalons, Källström, Bastos - Gomis, Lisandro
Megame

Good that Garde decided in favour of Koné instead of Cris, even if he just landed back from the ACN. Cris seemed so out of place in Lorient...
Russ

links????
sdzsdz

http://88.80.11.29/43421/watch-marseille-vs-lyon
Megame

OM right now seems to walk on water, and this positive momentum is its greatest asset. The team has achieved eight consecutive wins in all competitions and has not lost since Nov. 19 Championship game against Montpellier.
Russ

well today they walk on ice :) hopefully they slip up
Megame

Lyon lost all their away games against direct competitors : PSG, Lille, Montpellier... May Licha, Bastos, Gomis and co put an end to this series...
Russ

Yea I almost wish they would just call the game off, and reschedule. I've seen a couple premier league games this weekend with the heavy snow and it's added a huge degree of unpredictability to the matches. A draw would most certainly suffice, and like you said, pray for no injuries. This one might not be too pretty on the eye
Megame

But there are at least 2 good reasons to keep it like it is:
- first, OM and OL's schedule is already crazy, due to all the competitions they're still in;
- second, it may not be a bad moment to face OM as they're without Valbuena, Gignac and the Ayew brothers, whereas we do not have too many key players unavailable (except Mensah, that is :) )...
sidney govou

and Lovren
Megame

The game will be played at sub-zero temperature (-6 degrees Celsius currently). The pitch has been covered with a sort of heating blanket for two days now. The blanket was itself covered by 3 cm of snow... Let's hope it allows for decent play and no injuries ...