Caen - Lyon (Champions League Warm Up)

By: Inara | December 7th, 2007

While tomorrow might just seem like another league game to Lyon, the match against Caen will be crucial in terms of rotating the squad to ensure the right players get playing time or rest in order to prepare for the game against Rangers next week.

December 8th, 2007
Stade Michel d’Ornano, Caen
2 PM Eastern Time (20:00 in France)

Match background:

It’s fair to say that Lyon won’t be 100% focused on Caen. For all intents and purpose, this game is more for Lyon to get in shape for their very crucial clash against Rangers. There was a great deal of disgruntlement in the Lyon camp when Rangers got a week off to prepare, and Aulas petulantly asked the LFP for a similar favor, except the LFP just laughed (side note - when was the last time that Perrin was sweating about potential injuries? We’re playing Caen, not Bolton).

Now that Lyon got the amateurism out of their system, they’ve had no choice but to act accordingly. A few days ago, Aulas publicly started talking about squad rotation being enforced at Caen, which basically took the decision out of Perrin’s hands. My guess is that he’s still traumatized from last year, when Lyon fielded their starting XI in their away derby to St. Etienne and then lost embarrassingly to Roma three days later. Of course freshness wasn’t the only reason for that loss, but it’s clear that Aulas deeply regrets it (in fact even back then Aulas wanted a B squad sent to ASSE, but Houllier refused).

All this will be happening under the watchful eyes of Walter Smith and his Scottish cohorts, who have front row seats to Caen-Lyon. This is in addition to having sent scouts to Lyon-Strasbourg the previous weekend. I guess Rangers are taking this CL business awfully seriously. Let’s hope Lyon are doing the same because it would be retarded if they underestimated their opponents like they did last time.

But despite having an important clash next week, Lyon still intend to win and maintain their bird’s eye view of the rest of the Ligue 1 table.

Caen on the other hand are doing relatively well. They’ve taken over the recently vacated 10th spot from Strasbourg, whom Lyon hammered last weekend. While Caen did lose to Lyon in the CdL round of 16, since then they’ve notched up a huge 5-0 over Bordeaux and a shock 1-0 over PSG at the Parc. They’ve conceded 18 goals and scored 18, so not bad for a promoted side.

In the last five league games Lyon played at Caen, they’ve lost once and drawn once. Caen won the other three times.

Lyon info:

It’s funny, but anytime I’m writing up a match preview, I always have several injuries to report. And this week is no different. Cris is still absent, and Patrick Muller’s knee surgery went well. Fred is out with a muscle strain, as is Fabio Santos, who hurt his Achilles tendon. Their participation in Glasgow is still up in the air.

Le groupe lyonnais: Vercoutre, Roux - Clerc, Réveillère, C.Anderson, Squillaci, Grosso, Belhadj, Bodmer - Källström, Toulalan, Juninho, Govou, Ben Arfa, Keita - Benzéma, Baros, Rémy.

The good news is that Gregory Coupet will be taking part in a game with Lyon’s reserves this weekend against Croix-de-Savoie. This will no doubt cheer up his teammates, who’ve missed his presence in the locker rooms. While Coupet has ruled himself out from manning the nets against Rangers, he just might be allowed to travel with the squad as #3, and if he’s feeling well enough, he might even play in Lyon’s game against Nice next weekend.

Expected Lineup:

Had Fabio Santos and Fred not been injured, there would have been a few more options, but regardless, Perrin has the option of resting Anthony Reveillere, Juninho, Fabio Grosso, Karim Benzema, and Sidney Govou while still fielding a very superior lineup. It’s important to strike a balance between rest and keeping players match sharp, so hopefully Perrin will be using his substitutions wisely by allowing Juninho, Benzema, and Govou to play for 20 minutes. That won’t overly tire them but will still keep them hungry.

Vercoutre
Clerc - Squillaci - Anderson - Belhadj
Bodmer - Toulalan - Kallstrom
Keita - Baros - Ben Arfa

Right back is always a tossup because Perrin rotates Francois Clerc and Reveillere rather often. Normally I’d say Clerc should be saved for the Rangers match, but they did a lot of damage to us through their counters. Sp perhaps if would be better if Clerc played tomorrow and Reveillere on Wednesday.

The real question is, who is the better defender? Lyon can’t afford to concede goals at Ibrox, since if Rangers score one, we need to score two. There is little we can do about Remy Vercoutre, so it’s important that the two CBs in front of him are as cohesive as possible. And right now, that’s not Sebastien Squillaci and Anderson. Perrin admitted that he hasn’t ruled out dropping Anderson for Mathieu Bodmer, but if he does do so, then he needs to play Bodmer in defense ASAP in order to acclimate him back into that position (this also means that Juninho won’t get rest).

I personally would prefer to go with Anderson tomorrow just because he has been getting better, and as much as I like Bodmer, he’s been switching from defense to midfield every other week, and it’s understandably confusing him. So unless Anderson really messes up, I think we should continue trusting him. Caen’s attack will be far superior to Rangers, so if Anderson can handle it tomorrow, he’ll be able to do so on Wednesday. FYI, that’s not an insult to Rangers. It’s just that Caen are an ultra-offensive team and played some of best attacking football against Lyon all season, coming second only to the first Barcelona match.

The others are no-brainers. Nadir Belhadj desperately needs game time, and against Caen last time, he played very well, and this will allow Fabio Grosso to take a breather. Juninho should start the game from the bench and can be brought in later, and since Fabio Santos is out, Jeremy Toulalan has no choice but to play.

In attack, Kader Keita and Milan Baros deserve the start, and Hatem Ben Arfa can play for a half. I’m sure he’ll be replaced with Sidney Govou in the second half, and if Lyon are scoreless and/or losing, Benzema can be subbed in as well.

Viewing options:

You can try to find streams here. I’ll also try to post links in the comments of this post before the match starts, but don’t expect miracles - I don’t think this match is high priority for the broadcasters.

Expected Result:

Call me crazy, but I think Caen can get a shock result. Lyon will be distracted, and though they’ll have the better team, Caen always manages to find a way to get under their skins. They’ve produced some truly spectacular results this season against French “giants,” so their confidence is high. I’m expecting either a 1-1 or a 1-0 to Caen.