Lyon Invades Valenciennes

By: Inara | April 6th, 2007

Valenciennes vs. Olympique Lyonnais
April 7, 2007
Stade Nungesser
11:10 AM Eastern US Time (17:10 in France)

Lyon need a win here for two reasons: to bounce back from their Coupe de la Ligue defeat last week and to edge closer to the title. If Lyon win their next three matches, irrespective of everyone else’s results, they will have won the title (but if Lens loses this weekend, then Lyon only need to win two matches). Valenciennes need to win to make sure it’s still safe from relegation.

Now if only Europe could be this easy!

Valenciennes has the best home record in terms of goals conceded. They are tied with Lorient, for 11 goals allowed at home but only 14 scored. Lyon, on the other hand, strangely scores more and concedes less in away matches with 31 goals scored and only conceded 11 in their travels (weird, right?). Valenciennes is also home to the league’s top striker, Steve Savidan (13 goals). Lyon’s Fred has only 10 league goals under his belt.

On paper, it looks like an easy match for Lyon, but Valenciennes gave OL a really hard time when they last met in the fall. At times, Valenciennes had ten men behind the ball, and with about a hundred fouls, they clogged up the game pretty badly. Lyon had no choice but to send all their players into the attacking half, which left Savidan alone with only Cris or Squillaci for company.

Savidan showed what he was great at - utilizing his one lone chance the entire game and turning that into a goal. It was an excellent goal by him, an individual effort really. He managed to dodge Cris, then Squillaci, and then crucify Coupet, all in the space of twenty seconds. Excellent work by Savidan, but it was Valenciennes first real occasion.

Lyon then retaliated in its usual way when the next two goals scored were by…you guessed it, Cris and Squillaci!

Don’t expect this weekend’s match to be pretty or a goal fest. Houllier will be going for a nice, clean win with minimum fuss - so expect a tight scoreline of either 0-1 or 1-1 (though I hope not!).

The Lyon squad: Coupet, Vercoutre – Clerc, Réveillère, Cris, Müller, Squillaci, Abidal, Källström, Tiago, Toulalan, Fabio Santos, Govou, Wiltord, Malouda, Benzema, Fred, Baros.

Notice anyone missing? Besides the usual Ben Arfa, Berthod, and Cacapa trio, and the injured Juninho?

That’s right. Alou Diarra has been left behind. Fabio Santos has taken his place. No doubt this is Houllier’s response to Diarra’s comments in the press. People might not realize it, but our Gerard is capable of holding a grudge. He’s still not done with punishing Ben Arfa for coming late to a training session two months ago.

Sadly, due to the fact Tiago and Govou are still very tired, Houllier has decided not to try the 4-4-2, according to Olweb.fr. Damn. Just when I was getting my hopes up. So it’s back to the trusty 4-3-3, which Houllier says has gotten him very impressive results before anyway. All we do know is that Kim Kallstrom will be taking Juninho’s place in Lyon’s midfield triangle. That’s the only player who is confirmed for tomorrow.

I don’t think Fred will be starting after his dismal performance against Bordeaux. Could it be Milan? Or maybe even Karim. Either would be nice.