LORIENT vs. LYON

Ligue 1 – Week 4
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Stade du Moustoir, Lorient
19:00CET, 18:00GMT

Saturday, Lyon head up to Britanny in the north-west France to take on Les Merlus on what has been favorable ground for OL. After getting back on their feet following a rocky start by OL standards, Les Gonnes have righted the ship by winning last week at home against Brest, and now have four out of a possible nine points. With reinforcements in the form of Gourcuff hopefully making his debut against his father’s squad, let’s hope that Lyon will continue to put their house in order, in the face of the oncoming CL ties.

OL have made Moustoir something of a hunting ground as of late: they’ve won their last four of six, with one draw there. But if Moustoir has been the hunting ground, Les Merlus have become the hunted, not only by Lyon on their home turf, but during the league this year. Lorient have uncharacteristically lost two and drawn one out of their first three, and are sitting in the basement of L1. Indeed, Christian Gourcuff looks to maybe have a relegation battle on his hands this year, for the first time since his club’s promotion in ‘06.

Lorient’s plunge towards the bottom of the table has seemingly to do with their defense: allowing six goals, and average of two per match. After the sale Laurent Koscielny to Arsenal this summer, the defense has seemingly fallen to bits. And this week , Les Merlus will have to do without two more of their CBs due to injury. French U20 international Lamine Kone, who suffered a serious injury after replacing the starting CB Gregory Bourillon, who himself limped off the field during last week’s loss to Marseille. It’s expected that DM Alaixys Romao will be moved into the CB role this week if Bourillon isn’t ready to start.

The offense has been solid, and they have put three in the net so far, but they could suffer a blow in this department as well, as Kevin Gameiro’s future is still up in the air, and the transfer window still has a few days to close. So, we’ll see if Christian Gourcuff has his squad rearing to get back in the fight this weekend, and become that thorn-in-the-side squad they’ve come to personify in the past years, and we’ll see if OL can continue to build on last week’s first victory of the season.

Out: Ederson,Cris, Cissokho, and Bastos. The hamstring is the injury of the year, just like the adductor was last year’s injury, and the knee, the year before that. Is this a curse or is it the trainers?

Lacazette will be playing with the CFAs.

Le groupe de Lorient: Cappone, Lecomte – Baca, Sosa, Bourillon, Ecuele Manga, Le Lan, Morel – Coquelin, Diarra, Mvuemba, Romao, Jouffre, Dubarbier – Gameiro , Amalfitano, F. Robert, Kitambala.

Le groupe lyonnais : Lloris, Vercoutre- Réveillère, Toulalan, Lovren, Seguin, Gassama, Kolodziejczak; Källström, Gonalons, Makoun, Pjanic, Delgado, Pied, Novillo, Gourcuff, Gomis, Briand, Lisandro.

Line-up:

Lloris
Reveillere-Lovren-Toulalan-Kallstrom
Pjanic-Makoun-Gourcuff
Briand-Gomis-Delgado

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Category: Ligue 1