Auxerre vs. Lyon

By: Inara | April 21st, 2007

Auxerre

Auxerre vs. Olympique Lyonnais

April 22, 2007
Stade Abbe-Deschamps
12:00 PM Eastern Time (18:00 in France)

Originally, Lyon only needed one point to seal their sixth title, but now that Toulouse lost today, tomorrow’s match will be a celebration.

A muted celebration, that is.

Lyon has a good record against Auxerre, and it’s been a long time since they’ve lost at Abbe-Deschamps. They’ll be trying to back up number six with a win (especially since two out of the last three matches were scoreless draws, and the win was a measly 1-0). But even though Auxerre’s own manager, Jean Fernandez, thinks Lyon will win, don’t expect Auxerre to roll over. They might sit in 13th place, but they have only lost two games at home all year.

Auxerre also boasts Benoit Pedretti, who played for Lyon last year. He’s a talented player, with a few caps, and he’ll do his best to make life difficult for his former teammates tomorrow.

Lyon’s squad list: Coupet, Vercoutre – Clerc, Réveillère, Cris, Squillaci, Müller, Cacapa, Abidal, Berthod, Källström, Toulalan, Juninho, Fabio Santos, Bettiol, Wiltord, Ben Arfa, Baros, Malouda.

Look who’s missing this time. Karim Benzema (injury), Tiago (family reasons), Alou Diarra (of course), Sidney Govou (because he has been playing like crap recently), and Fred.

Fred is Lyon’s top scorer (he has only ten goals in the league, but he’s missed a large chunk of the season due to injuries, suspensions, and most recently, punishment. Apparently, Fred was late to training once or twice, so he’s getting the Hatem Ben Arfa treatment, which is exclusion for an indefinite period of time.

I’m a bit undecided on how I feel about this. On one hand, Fred should be punished if he’s been acting like a diva, but on the other hand…he is Lyon’s top scorer, and he deserved to be with the team as they celebrate the title. And it’s not like Baros and Wiltord have been knocking in the goals recently either.

Honestly, couldn’t Houllier have taken along the entire squad this one time? Even if they can’t sit on the bench, they had every right to celebrate with the rest of the team. Even Diarra, for all his negative comments in the press, contributed to Lyon’s success this season. Houllier easily could have excluded them from the next match against Le Mans. But this was a bit cruel, I think.

Even Lyon’s website reports that some of the players were more reserved at the hotel during the party. Last year, they ran around the streets shirtless with bottles of champagne. This year, they barely drank any. I don’t think they’ll be playing tomorrow with painted hair and faces either like they did last year against St. Etienne.

And I have the sinking feeling that Fred won’t be around next season.