Lyon 3 - 1 River Plate

By: Inara | July 19th, 2007

!!!!!!!!!!!

That was the best Lyon game I’ve seen in a long time. And to think it was only a friendly!

River Plate only needed a draw to go through while Lyon not only needed to win, but in the event that Reading won their match against Shimizu S-Pulse, they would have to score more than the English side (Reading won 1-0).

The game was absolutely fabulous, exciting from the first minute until the last minute of stoppage time. No team sat back in their own halves - it was just attack, attack, attack!!! If Lyon wasn’t hammering River Plate’s goal, River Plate was hammering Lyon’s. Though I think part of the reason for the strong attacking quality to the game was because both teams were crap defensively, so I suppose the mindset was that since they couldn’t handle the ball in their own half, it was better to take it into the other half.

There was drama, with quite a bit of fouls called and cards given out. One of Benzema’s goals were disallowed because it was offside, and as the players grew more desperate, the fouls became more dangerous, one of which eventually led to an expulsion. Benzema, by the way, nearly got into a fistfight with one of River Plate’s defenders.

All in all, it was a great game. I didn’t get up to leave once, and normally I have the attention span of a three year old. It was so worth waking up at seven in the morning to watch this. Despite Lyon missing so many of their regulars, Alain Perrin had Lyon put on a performance that the side has been missing for a long time. Let’s hope it’s not a fluke but a sign of things to come.

Goals: Lyon (Benzema 6, Ben Arfa 24, Källström 90), River Plate (Ruben 13)
Cards: Lyon (Govou 9, Belhadj 38, Toulalan 60), River Plate (Fernandez 31 and 80 - RED, Martinez 92)

Edit: I stole this from Christian at the River Plate Offside. Here is a compiled highlight video (view the original selection of clips here).

Tactics:

Coupet
Clerc - Bodmer - Muller - Belhadj
Govou - Toulalan - Kallstrom - Ben Arfa
Benzema - Baros

That’s a different lineup than the one I posted yesterday, but Perrin was obliged to make last minute changes. Right before the match, the referee disqualified Kader Keita and Anthony Reveillere from participating because of their injuries (though to be fair, both Keita and Reveillere were allowed to play with bandages against Reading). That meant that an out of form Milan Baros and a very tired Nadir Belhadj had no choice but to play.

Defense: Lyon’s chances looked really bleak thanks to their mounting injuries. With a defense consisting of two non-defensive fullbacks, a midfielder, and Lyon’s third choice center back, it was left to Gregory Coupet to keep Lyon in the game - which he did! Man of the match for me, with save after save. He literally carried Lyon on his back for large stretches of the game.

OLRP

The official caption for this pic is “Good looking. Good skills. Good manner. Just Perfect!!”

Francois Clerc was average this match. He was fortunate that most of River Plate’s attacks went down Lyon’s left, so Clerc wasn’t exposed as often as he would have been otherwise. With Clerc, the ability is there, he just needs to be more decisive. There are some moments in a match where it’s obvious he can’t decide to go forward or stay back, so he ends up giving the ball away. As for LB Nadir Belhadj, he was exhausted. His game today lacked his usual flair, and he game the ball away quite stupidly during some moments. He played the full 90 minutes for the past three games - I don’t know how he’s going to play in the final since it looks like Fabio Grosso might have to sit out once again.

The Mathieu Bodmer - Patrick Muller pairing was cringe worthy, and I think it was Bodmer who was mostly responsible for River Plate’s goal. Sometimes it felt like Coupet was a third CB to back them up. Muller was also tired, like Belhadj, he’s played 90 minutes in all three games so far, and he will have to play against Bolton since there is no back up for him. Sandy Paillot eventually replaced him in the last ten minutes, so it was hard to tell just how good Paillot is. I’m undecided as to whether I prefer Bodmer or Paillot as fourth choice CB.

Midfield: This is where Lyon dominated. Jeremy Toulalan and Kim Kallstrom played in the middle, with Toulalan playing more defensively and Kallstrom slightly more offensively. After a year of seeing them in a 4-3-3, I’m now thinking a 4-4-2 with them in the middle might be better. They were tireless and were the stops in River Plate’s attacking engine. They also seemed to share a good understanding with each other - no miscommunication between them. If both Kallstrom and Toulalan hang around, I cannot wait to see how their pairing turns out. Kallstrom scored Lyon’s penalty as well, showing us why he’s Sweden’s penalty taker instead of Zlatan the Great.

OLRP

Kongo Kim strikes again.

Perrin placed Sidney Govou and Hatem Ben Arfa on the wings. Everyone here knows my feelings on Govou, so I won’t make any snide comments about him. He came close to scoring once or twice, and he constantly hounded the opposition. I just wish he would be more effective once he had the ball. But that’s just me. But it was a good game by him. It will be interesting to see Govou and Keita competing throughout the year. As for Ben Arfa, he had a good match, highlighted by the understanding he shares with his teammates. He was dispossessed frequently and relies on his speed to get past opponents since he can’t outmuscle them. He also scored one of the goals today.

OLRP

Screw Trez. We have Benz.

Attack: I thought that Milan Baros played slightly behind Karim Benzema, as a sort of secondary striker (thereby taking on the role that Keita was supposed to have played today). While Baros hasn’t scored yet, he’s a large reason that Lyon had any possession at all in River Plate’s half. Unlike Benzema, Ben Arfa, and Govou, Baros doesn’t lose the ball easily and is strong enough to bulldoze through his opponents. His presence allows Benzema to shine (it’s looking more like Baros is taking the Shevchenko role). Baros was replaced by Loic Remy, whose only contribution to the game was to win Lyon a penalty, which Kallstrom took. Benzema was replaced with Alou Diarra, which reverted Lyon back to a 4-3-3. Perrin did that to strengthen Lyon’s shoddy defenses and keep their lead safe.

River Plate: Hihihihihi.

I was really impressed by Radamel Falcao. He fought until the last second of stoppage time and was their most dangerous player, more so than Fernando Belluschi, who is River Plate’s danger man. If Falcao were Brazilian, I would email Bernard Lacombe and tell him to buy him right this instant. He wasn’t that great at finishing, as he missed some easy chances, but A) he had Coupet standing in his way, B) he was a pain in the ass, and C) since when do Lyon’s strikers actually score?

Next up is the final against Bolton, which promises the be a very tough match, as physical, defensive sides are the ones Lyon have problems playing against. The game will be Satuday morning at 4 AM ET (10 AM in France). I’ll have more on that later.

Unfortunately, Toulalan may have picked up an injury and will probably be out against Bolton. Since Alou Diarra has just finalized his transfer to Bordeaux, we might end up seeing Fabio Santos and Kallstrom in midfield. Umm…

Match Pictures:

OLRP