Valenciennes vs. Lyon: Back to Plowing the Domestic Fields

By: John | November 29th, 2008

29 Nov 2008
Stade de Gerland
1p.m. ET(1900 CET, 1800 GMT)

Lyon haven’t even had time to savor their Wednesday win over Fiorentina that will see them through to the knock-out stages of the CL for the sixth time in six years. Lyon have had a hectic schedule as of late, with twelve matches in six weeks, not including international duty for some players like Benzema, Toulalan, and Grosso who all picked-up slight knocks.

Match Background:

On Saturday, Valenciennes FC come to Stade Gerland looking to get out of the L1 cellar.
Valenciennes are currently in the relegation zone in 19th place with only St. Etienne below them. They haven’t won a match since week three vs. Lorient, their second victory of the season!!!! They have 2 wins 4 draws and 9 losses. They’re 18th in attack with 10 goals and 16th in defense with 20 goals allowed. Their top scorer is Gregory Pujol who doesn’t exactly instil fear the hearts of defenders, as he’s only netted three goals all season.

History: I know this means very little, but I find it interesting anyway. In 25 meetings between the two teams, Lyon have won 14, tied 9 and Valenciennes have taken 2. Last season, Lyon won 2-0 at Gerland with Juni and Govou both netting goals. The last time Valenciennes won was back in 1977 (2-1)

Injuries and other Abscences: Juninho will be sitting-out the next two matches as the LFP hit him with a two-game suspension for trying to Samba on Sylvain Armand’s ankles in last weekend’s loss to PSG.
The usual suspects, Clerc, Reveillere, Bodmer and Pjanic are out, but to add to our injury woes, Benzema will be out for two weeks with a thigh problem, and Faure is out with a knee injury.
The good news is that both Fabio Santos and Cesar Delgado are back in the squad after bieng out for two weeks with an ankle sprain and adductor pull, respectively.

Le groupe lyonnais: Lloris, Vercoutre – Gassama, Kolodziejczak, Mensah, Cris, Boumsong, Grosso – Källström, Fabio Santos, Toulalan, Ederson, Makoun – C. Delgado, Govou, Piquionne, Fred, Mounier, K. Keita.

Le groupe valenciennois :
Grondin, Penneteau – Abardonado, Bisevac, Ducourtioux, Mater, Tiéné, D. Traoré, M. Traoré – Belmadi, Danic, Jeovanio, Khiter, Saez, Sanchez – Audel, Pieroni, Pujol.

Probable Lineup:

L’Equipe is showing their probable line-up as a 4-5-1, but I’ll go out-on-a-limb and go with a 4-3-3, even though Juni is out. At the back, we’ll probably see Gassama back on the right- thank God his knee injury wasn’t anything serious. With Bezema and Juni out, I think well, see Kim Kallstrom in left midfield and either Kieta or Govou will be rested- my bet’s on Keita- and we should see Ederson on the left wing.

My Line-up:

Lloris
Gasama-Cris-Mensah-Grosso
Makoun-Toulalan-Kallstrom
Govou-Fred-Ederson

L’Equipe’s:

Lloris
Mensah-Cris-Boumsong-Grosso
Makoun-Toulalan/Kallstrom
Govou- Ederson- Keita
Fred

Expected Outcome: Valenciennes are less of an offensive threat than Fred before he started playing because “new, fat-contract” time is approaching. Even though Lyon are missing around 70% of their offense- Benz and Juni- I have a feeling it’s time for some other players to step-up and score. I’m calling a 2-0 win.

Viewing Options: If your lucky enough to have TV5, jump for joy. The Setanta schedule page has been down all morning, so I was unable to check availability. Please post any working links here.