Lille vs. Lyon (Champions League Warm Up)

By: Inara | March 1st, 2008

Tomorrow, Lyon will be playing my second favorite French team, otherwise known as Lille. As matches go, this is one of the tougher ones to have right before a do-or-die Champions League game four days later.

What makes this game even cooler is that it’s part of the Stade de France’s 10 year anniversary celebration. As such, instead of Lille hosting Lyon in their temporary home stadium, Stade Lille-Metropolein Villeneuve d’Ascq, this game will be taking place at the Stade de France in Paris. With 75,000 tickets already sold, this will be the most well attended L1 game ever.

March 1st, 2008
Stade de France, Paris
11:10 AM EST (17:10 CET, 16:10 GMT)

Match background:

Lille is, despite their lukewarm performance this year, one of France’s few “European” teams. They’ve only participated in the Champions League twice, but their first year saw them top Manchester United in the group stages and kick them out of Europe entirely, and in the second year, they made the knockout rounds, where they once again faced Manchester United and made them suffer a lot.

So don’t be fooled by Lille’s position in the Ligue 1 table. Despite being in 14th place, their record really isn’t that bad. They’ve conceded less goals than Lyon and have in fact lost fewer games. But the strange thing with Lille is that they are this year’s draw specialists. With 14 draws this year, no other side comes close (Lyon have the fewest, with four).

What’s dragging them down is their inability to score goals, which is mostly do to the exodus of players out of Lille last year. Peter Odemwingie, Kader Keita, and Mathieu Bodmer - the latter two now at Lyon - were the guys responsible for keeping Lille a top of the table side. It’s no surprise to see Lille struggling, though they have a host of promising new players who, after a year of getting a feel for things, will no doubt see Lille return to their customary place on the table.

There are some quality players at Lille, such as Ludovic Obraniak, Yohan Cabaye, Kevin Mirallas, Tony Sylva, and my favorite, Jean II Makoun (who is welcome at Lyon any time!). However, Makoun will be out because he is sick with malaria (which he got while at the African Cup of Nations), and Obraniak is suspended. Nicolas Plestan will also be missing (ankle injury).

On loan at the club is Rio Antonio Mavuba from Villareal. At one time, he used to be Raymond Domenech’s choice to eventually replace Claude Makelele, but due to the rise in prominence of Jeremy Toulalan as well as Mavuba’s failed tenure at Villareal, he’s been dropped from the French National Team.

I should also mention that Patrick Kluivert is also at Lille, ostensibly to offer experience to the otherwise young squad. I’m not sure how seriously you should take Kluivert though, since he’s not even a shadow of the player he once was. But maybe against Lyon, we’ll see him assert some of his long buried talent.

Most of these are players that were unearthed in the most obscure of places, and for that you can thank Claude Puel, who is, to my mind, the best coach in France. Basically, he’s a poor man’s Arsene Wenger (and his most natural replacement). I LOVE Puel - he’s my top choice for Lyon coach, but sadly, he’ll never come to a club where he doesn’t have absolute freedom. Sadness.

Anyway, on the Lyon side of things, we’re only three points ahead of Bordeaux (who are thankfully playing PSG this weekend - let’s hope the Parisiens make Bordeaux suffer), so we need the win. Also of note is that the next seven days are particularly grueling - after Lille, it’s Manchester, and then Bordeaux, our direct title challengers. More importantly, playing in front of such a huge crowd (and a hostile one - the SdF isn’t known to be a friendly place) should be good practice before Lyon’s trip to Old Trafford.

Lille have always had the ability to make Lyon suffer and will no doubt do so again, and they have an undefeated record at the SdF. If Lyon can get a win, they will have a huge boost in confidence.

Lyon info:

ASJDJFSJDJFJKSKLJALJDKLSJDKLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I think you guys know what that means. INJURIES. Ugh.

Fabio Grosso is still out, which makes this his second game that he’s missing (he hurt his knee in the first leg against United). No word yet on whether he’ll be fit in time for next Tuesday, but I think Perrin is erring on the side of caution by giving Grosso extra rest. If Grosso isn’t fit, Lyon will be really screwed because with Anthony Reveillere suspended, the only other fullback we have available is Francois Clerc.

Le groupe lyonnais: Coupet, Vercoutre - Clerc, Réveillère, Squillaci, Boumsong, Cris - Källström, Toulalan, Crosas, Juninho, Bodmer, Delgado, A.Keita - Ben Arfa, Govou, Benzema, Fred

Also on the injured list is Jean-Alain Boumsong, who has a strained tendon. Though he’s listed on the squad for tomorrow, it depends on him passing a late fitness test. Perrin might opt to bench Boumsong anyway. The good news is that Cris will probably get to start tomorrow (thank god, right?).

Expected lineup:

Coupet
Clerc - Squillaci - Cris - Reveillere
Bodmer - Toulalan - Kallstrom
Keita - Fred - Ben Arfa

With Fabio Grosso out, Anthony Reveillere has no choice but to play on the left. He’s suspended for the next Champions League match anyway. If Jean-Alain Boumsong doesn’t play, it’s Cris who gets the spot next to Sebastien Squillaci.

In midfield, I don’t expect Juninho to start, especially with the tough week ahead of us. But if he does, then he’ll be coming off after 60 minutes. Either way, he won’t be playing the full game. And of course Jeremy Toulalan will be playing - we don’t exactly have another DM. That also leaves Kim Kallstrom and Mathieu Bodmer, though I wouldn’t mind seeing Kallstrom benched so that Marc Crosas can get some minutes.

I expect Bodmer to start because he’s a former Lillois. Same goes for Kader Keita, who might finally put in the inspired performance we’ve all been waiting for. Fred should get the nod, not only to let Karim Benzema rest, but also to keep up his good form. And Hatem Ben Arfa hasn’t started in a while yet either, so he needs to prove that he deserves a place in the starting XI for Manchester.

Viewing options:

I don’t understand why this isn’t Canal+’s big match of the weekend, or why this game isn’t on Sunday, especially since it’s the biggest match this weekend, with 75,000 people attending. But I guess the powers that be at Canal+ know something I don’t. Unfortunately, this not being a Sunday match means that it’s not going to be on Setanta. So the only way we can watch this stateside is by illegal streams.

Expected Result:

Call me cynical, but I think it’ll be 1-1. Lille like to draw, Lyon will be playing cautiously to avoid any more injuries.