SM Caen vs. Lyon, Match day 7

By: Nikhil Apte | September 21st, 2011

Venue : Stade Michel d’Ornan
Sep 21, 2011, 1900 CET.

Of highs and spectacular lows highs!

Stade de Gerland turned into a graveyard for Olympique Marseille this Sunday. The memorable 2-0 loss to OL has brought upon OM a 10 point deficit from 2012-13 Champions League spots in just 6 games! Rémi Garde wouldn’t have wanted to top the table in any other fashion; First season as coach & top of the table before he could say ‘X-mas’!

Lyon are now Ligue 1 leaders after 701 days, and 72 league ties. WHEW!

Remi Garde - Caen Lyon

You Da Man, Dawg!

The Leadership deficit problem appears to be approaching a solution! Sure, all of us get curious vibes from the man’s football decisions sometimes, but heck, if it works in times of adversity, there’s much potential for Garde to be the go-to guy for a very long time indeed.

SM Caen are currently 12^th in the league, and have lost against Lille, Toulouse, and Rennes this season. Lyon should hence safely sail through to the all-important and ever full of revenge match against Girondins de Bordeaux this weekend. That is, if it doesn’t keep losing players to injury at this rate.

Who’s in the Line Ups and who’s a desperate house-husband?

Kim Källström, that’s who. The midfield warrior picked up an ankle injury against Marseille, but kept the fight up. It looks like two more weeks before he can join the team again, hopefully a fresh player. Lisandro, Gourcuff, Cris, Ederson are still injured. If this Word document were Gmail, I bet it would suggest ‘also add “Gourcuff, Cris, Ederson”?’ the moment I entered Lisandro.

Lyon can hardly allow themselves to become an ARSEnal in this regard. Not any more, that is.

On the bright side, Gueïda Fofana is being given a start! It is a line-up that knows they are up against Caen, so the much awaited Lacazette appearance should be on the cards! Mensah will make an appearance, so expect the game to go deep into injury time.

Not sure if Kone – Mensah teaming up needs to be tested this quickly, but the team does need depth for the flood of games to come. Dabo comes into the midfield as well. Time to get a good reading on the new boys!

SM Caen – Thébaux; Van Dam, Leca, Heurtaux, Raineau; Proment, Nivet, Seube; Hamouma, Bulot; Frau

Lyon – Lloris, Réveillère, B.Koné, Mensah, Cissokho, Gonalons, Fofana, Briand, Dabo, Bastos, Gomis.

Allez Les Gones!

Some Related Lyon Posts:

Category: Ligue 1

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Luke99

what impressed me the most these past few games is that Lyon are finally starting to show that they can play good attacking football without Lisandro and that's something we been lacking the past few seasons
Aleksander

Gotta say I was very impressed by Belfodil against Caen, he really looked confident when he came on and in my opinion he should start the next match. Great at holding the ball up, and is much quicker, more mobile and better on the ball than Gomis. Really hoping that he and Laca will break through soon. Also, Fofana looked very good, plays a bit like M'vila... maybe he can become our next Mamo Diarra
muffin

I agree. Fofana was amazingly good for his debut start. So glad we kept 15M€ for N'dinga in our pockets and spent only 2 for a player as twice as talented as him.
With him, Gonalons and Grenier we probably have the most talented young midfield in Ligue 1. And our defense and offense also have some of the best young talents out there; Lacazette, Belfodil, Kone, Lovren, Kolodzieczak, Umtiti, Benzia...
If we keep them and give them enough time to play together and gel, one day we might have the strongest Lyon side ever.
resume writing service

Lyon is a great club!
Ronald

didnt watch the game. saw a bit of highlights here and there. But i was waiting for our 1st defeat to take place cause it will now keep us grounded. Lyon need to be hungrier and try to win EVERY game ( not saying they havent, but i know some werent even thinking about tonights game not being a win...im not gonna point any fingers lol )

P.S. let this be a lesson to Nikhil Apte.....no game is a guarantee...respect ALL opponents.
Megame

History would tell us that this was bound to happen : in the 11 previous games between the two teams, Lyon had lost 7 times and drawn 2... So Caen is very well placed on the list of our betes noires...
Nikhil Apte

Pardon me for attempting to be out and out positive about Lyon's winning chances in this match.
Gloom and doom is all you want on a Lyon blog? We've had plenty of that already for too many months, especially against Caen.
Sometimes, writing something is not about what you actually think but what you would like to think, wouldn't you agree?
Ronald

i appreciate the optimism, really i do. Just, gotta be humble at times as well lol
Nikhil Apte

Only after the match. ;)
muadz matmu

Lloris red-carded? it's okay, I still love him :)
stanley

can't say too much about this game except that we were a little unlucky with lloris getting sent off right before the half....but we didn't really deserve to win. It's not so bad though i still like how this team is playing with purpose at a gameplan
John

As bad as we played, we deserved to win: Caen did a great job, first they picked-up two yellow cards on heads-up plays by their veterans which probably saved two goals, then Thebaux made two or three Llorisesque type saves that clinched the game for them.
John

It looks like the ankle injury will be this year's curse, as the groin was last year's and the knee was in years past.

Mensah looked very good, except when he would fall to the ground in pain on a rough challenge. The guy's a piece of porcelain.

Bastos is starting to challenge for the second most valubable player on the team. Love watching him play.
Aditya

I thought Lloris & Lisandro pretty much had the top 2 spots sewn :P.
John

Bastos is knipping at Lisandro's heels.
Megame

Doesn't look good at all... We're heading to the first defeat of the season.
Megame

At last! Lacazette comes into play
Megame

Nivet (the scorer) got a second yellow... so we're both down to 10 men
Tibor

Lloris red card + penalty

Caen lead 1-0
Megame

Judging from the last shoots from Bastos and Gonalons, there will be birds killed tonight around stade Malherbe.
Megame

Caen striker Pierre-Alain Frau being a former Lyonnais, he's sure to score tonight. Aren't we nice?
Megame

Fairly tactical game at the moment, therefore a bit boring...
Megame

First quarter of an hour... None of the teams wants to expose themselves. Lyon would like Caen to come to them, but Caen don't want to risk a now feared Lyonnais counterattack...
57% possession for Lyon at the moment.