CL Preview: Lyon vs. Fiorentina, Part Deux

Wow, writing this match preview feels like déjà vu. Oh wait, it’s because I wrote one exactly a year ago, involving the exact same teams and coaches. So here’s hoping the outcome (which was a 2-2 last season) is at least more in our favor this time.

September 16, 2009
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
2:45 PM ET (20:45 CET, 19:45 GMT)

Match Background:

I was sorely tempted to copy and paste what I wrote about Fiorentina last year, simply because their squad hasn’t gone through any drastic changes since then. There have been a few transfers, but for the most part, the team OL will be facing tomorrow is nearly the same as the one they faced last season.

In terms of transfers, Fiorentina had only one major player leave, and that was Felipe Melo, who changed pastures for Juventus. They also lost Zdravko Kuzmanović to Stuttgart and Franco Semioli to Sampdoria. Their incoming players are a bit more interesting, with Lorenzo De Silvestri from Lazio, and Cristiano Zanetti and Marco Marchionni from Juventus. Coach Cesar Prandelli added depth to his team in nearly all positions, so I’d say he had a pretty decent mercato.

That’s in addition to the players he already has, including Sebastien Frey, Adrian Mutu, and Alberto Gilardino (who scored all three of Fiorentina’s goals against OL last reason). Stevan Jovetić and Juan Vargas are also players to watch out.

Last season, Fiorentina ended in fourth place in their league, which in Serie A is a CL qualification spot. Like OL, they had to go through a play-off round to earn their place in this year’s group stages. They faced Sporting in qualifying, and though the aggregate score was 3-3 (both matches were draws), Fiorentina slipped through due to more away goals. This year, Fiorentina are in 5th place after three games, with two wins and one draw. So far, they have scored 3 goals and conceded 1.

Since most of us know what Lyon have been up to this transfer window, I won’t delve into it, but for those non-OL fans, Lyon have changed their squad a great deal since the last time these two sides met. Juninho, Karim Benzema, John Mensah, Fred, Fabio Grosso, Kader Keita, Anthony Mounier, and Frederic Piquoinne – all of whom played against Fiorentina, either as a starter or as a substitute – are no longer at Lyon.

At first glance, that looks like an impressive list of departures, but besides Juni and Benzema, Lyon were eager to let them go. In fact, one could argue that despite the departures, Lyon have improved from the stagnating side they were last season, and that the new incoming players – a mere four of them, though together valued at 74 million euros, have brought back the energy, vitality, and creativity that has long been missing.

Currently, Lyon are in 2nd place in the league, tied on points with Bordeaux. They’ve scored 10 goals and conceded 3. They sailed through CL qualifying, beating Anderlecht 8-2 on aggregate. But despite their promising early form, the Champions League has always been an entirely different competition, and Fiorentina are certainly better than any of the teams Lyon have faced since the season began. So tomorrow is sure to be a game that will keep everyone on the edges of their seats.

Team News:

There was some speculation that Adrian Mutu wouldn’t be fit in time for tomorrow’s game, but alas, it looks like he’s healed rather quickly (or, more likely, Prandelli was spreading around the intox). However, Cristiano Zanetti is suspended while José Castillo and Lorenzo De Silvestri are out with injuries.

Le groupe de la Fiorentina: Avramov, Seculin, Frey – Comotto, Dainelli, Gamberini, Gobbi, Kroldrup, Natali, Pasqual – Donadel, Jorgensen, Jovetic, Marchionni, Montolivo, Santana, Vargas – Mutu, Gilardino

There was also some rapid healing among Lyon players as well. Ederson and Lisandro Lopez, both of whom missed last Saturday’s game against Lorient and who were doubtful tomorrow, are now match fit. They will be joining Sidney Govou, who recently returned to first team action after a month long absence. The only two missing players are Jean-Alain Boumsong and Cleber Anderson (and naturally, both are CBs).

Le groupe lyonnais: Lloris, Vercoutre – Réveillère, Cris, Clerc, Bodmer, Cissokho, Seguin – Toulalan, Källström, Pjanic, Makoun, Gonalons, Belfodil, Ederson, Govou, Delgado – B.Gomis, Bastos, Lisandro

Puel is bringing along some of the kiddies. Ishak Belfodil and Maxime Gonalons, both of whom have already had their European (and league) debuts in recent weeks, will be joined by Nicholas Seguin, another of one of OL’s youth players.

Expected Lineup:

I’ll just skip over the back four. There’s no point really. No way will Puel give Francois Clerc his first start of the season in a crucial game like this, and it’s not like there are a lot of options in the other three positions, is there?

Midfield is where most of the question marks are. Puel may opt to go for the players he used in the first game against Anderlecht, but given the very great danger to our defense (our defense is crap, and everyone knows it), Puel might end up going with the relative safety of two DMs. Since Kim Kallstrom was rested over the weekend, it looks like Miralem Pjanic will be the player missing out. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I don’t like the idea of such a defensive formation (and yeah, having both Jean II Makoun and Jeremy Toulalan on the pitch is exactly that), but I have images of Adrian Mutu and Alberto Gilardino raping our back four, and then I think, hey, even three DMs sounds like a good idea. I guess we’ll see.

Up front, I expect to see Lisandro Lopez, Michel Bastos, and Bafetimbi Gomis. That means that Sidney Govou and Ederson don’t get to start (unless, once again, Puel drops one of the midfielders). To be honest, I can’t say I’m too sad to see either of them sit out since Bastos, Lisandro, and Gomis play so well together.

Lloris
Reveillere – Cris – Bodmer – Cissokho
Makoun – Toulalan – Kallstrom
Bastos – Gomis – Lisandro

At least that’s what I expect. The only changes I can see happening are one of Makoun or Kallstrom being dropped.

Viewing Options:

I swear, I think options are growing more limited each year. On television, the only place to watch this match (in the US, that is), is either on DirecTV or on SkySports Red Button, whatever that is. If you are REALLY patient, FSC will show Lyon vs. Fiorentina on Thursday at 5 PM in a super delayed broadcast.

But if you’d rather not wait, it looks like streaming is once again your best option. You can cross your fingers and try to find a working here, or you can chuck out $10 and buy one from UEFA.com. Remember, sharing is caring, and if you find a working stream, please share!

If you’d rather skip out on the streaming drama altogether, you can follow along on liveblog. Both Football365.fr and Lequipe.fr will have good ones, as will the OL website, where you can also follow along with free audio commentary – though be warned, it’s all in French. (About an hour before the match, I’ll update this section with the links to the liveblogs.)

Expected Result:

I’m not really sure what to expect. Both Fiorentina and Lyon are unknown quantities at the moment, and this game could go both ways. I don’t want to jinx anything with making either a too optimistic or too pessimistic guess, so instead, let me just wish for a match filled with fun football, no injuries (or drama!), and a result that is in Lyon’s favor.

Addendum:

I just wanted to mention that I hope that we can keep the commentary nice and clean. Last season, while the majority of you were great at keeping things polite and on topic, there were a couple fans (representing both OL and Fiorentina) started taking things too personally and began a series of nasty posts to each other. I’m not trying to go all Stalinistic on you guys, but please, no personal or racial insults, and no trolling. That also goes for any OL fans who might feel the need to vent over at the Fiorentina blog – please don’t.

Thanks!

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Category: Champions League, Team News and Rumors