Lyon vs. Lorient Preview

By: John | August 16th, 2008

$\"Benzema scores Lyon\'s only goal in last year\'s 2-1 loss to Lorient.\"$
Benzema celebrates after scoring Lyon’s only goal in last year’s 2-1 loss to Lorient.

This week, Lyon travel to Brittany to face FC Lorient at Le Stade du Moustoir. Lorient is currently tied for 2nd place with seven other teams in L1, having defeated Le Mans 1-0 in the first week. Although Lorient dealt Lyon a defeat last season, history is not on their side when these two teams have met. Here is a complete history of the meetings between the two teams:

- 2007/2008 – 18/08/2007 : FC Lorient 2 – 1 Olympique Lyonnais. Goals: Lorient: Vahirua 14′, 66′. Lyon: Benzema 32′.

- 2006/2007 – 16/09/2006 : FC Lorient 1 – 3 Olympique Lyonnais. Goals: Lorient: Ciani 69′. Lyon: Tiago 6′, Fred 62′ and Malouda 65′.

- 2001/2002 – 17/11/2001 : FC Lorient 0 – 3 Olympique Lyonnais. Goals: Lyon: Carrière 9′, Anderson 30′, and Govou 31′.

- 1998/1999 – 22/08/1998 : FC Lorient 0 – 1 Olympique Lyonnais. Goals: Lyon: Grassi 58′.

Lorient is lead by coach Christopher Gourcuff, father of Bourdeaux’s Yoann Gourcuff. Gourcuff is a club man having played for Lorient and has had two stints as coach for the club, with his latest tenure going-on 5 years now. Gourcuff has kept this mid-level team in L1 for the last three seasons with a mix of solid defense and low player turn-over. Lorient’s defense was ranked 5th in L1 last year. They have a solid goalkeeper Fabien Audard, who’s looked solid everytime I’ve seen him play. This year’s squad, aside from the string of injuries plaguing the club, is pretty much the same as last year.

Here is what Claude Puel had to say about Lorient’s squad:
“It’s a difficult team to play. They posses a collective mastery; they recover collectively. They take-on the opposing team. They’re very solid in their 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1. They are very disciplined with or without the ball. They always make the game interesting, and they start the season off well. Last season at Lille, we had problems with them on the first day, (0-0). We know what to expect.”

If Lorient’s defense if solid, it’s offense is abysmal. Last season, their offense ranked next-to-last. And this is where Lyon wins the game, because added to the fact that Lorient’s offensive output is downright amenic, their two best scorers are out due to injury. Both Marana Vahirua, and Rafik Saifi are out for this game. Vahirua and Saifi accounted for 66% of Lorient’s offensive output last year. And Vahirua was the author of the two goals- he scored (3) in five appearences last season- that sunk Lyon in last year’s 2-1 loss. The only bright spot for Lorient’s offense is that Sunday will mark the debut of the Ghanaian international striker Andre Ayew, on loan from Marseilles. Though Ayew is a technically gifted player, he’s yet to score in nine club and ten international appearences, so hopefully he won’t have a break-out game till week three. Lorient’s defense is very solid, but due to their lack of offensive weapons, barring a complete collapse of the Cris-Bodmer backline, and unless Lyon’s offense stalls, I see a 1-0 victory for Lyon.

Injuries: Looks like Cris is finally feeling confident about his knee, having sat-out last week’s game while continuing to strengthen it. John Mensah is out. He has been practicing, having gotten over his calf injury, but now he supposedly has an abdominal problem. The “rock” is starting to chip! Both Keita and Fred will be out, though they should both be cleared to practice next week. And of course both Francois Clerc and Fabio Santos are out with long-term injuries.

Le Groupe Lyonnais: Lloris, Vercoutre – Gassama, Réveillère, Cris, Boumsong, Bodmer, Grosso, Faure – Källström, Juninho, Makoun, Toulalan – Govou, Delgado, Mounier, Pjanic, Ederson, Piquionne, Benzema.

Le Groupe Lorientais: Audard, Cappone – Ciani, Genton, Jallet, Marchal, Morel, Soro – Abriel, Amalfitano, B. Robert, Ewolo, Jouffre, Le Pen, Mansouri – Ayew, Gameiro, F. Robert.

Injured/Out: Buron, Le Lan, Marin, Namouchi, Pinard, Saïfi, Vahirua.

Expected Lineup:

———————Lloris————————–
———Reveillere-Cris-Bodmer-Grosso————–
—————Toulalan-Makoun———————
——————–Juninho————————-
————-Govou-Benzema-Pjanic/Delgado———

I will probably be away from a computer on Sunday and Inara is traveling, so if anyone finds any good streams, please post them here.

Some Related Lyon Posts:

Category: Ligue 1, Team News and Rumors

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muco

john: u got a good point, no way the guy from Lens is anywhere close to the level we expect from a first-team player. 2-3 years down the line? why not...
john

This is Grosso's back-up, a 16/17 year old? Will he start in L1 and the CL if Grosso goes down? Seems more of a reserve player. I think Puel plans to use Mensah, Boumsong and even Kallstrom on the left. Why isn't Beynie being given a chance on the right?
andy

http://www.skysports.com/story...

Some more info about this transfer please? Is he good?
Corey

Marseille is about four games away from a mini-crisis, I wouldnt worry about their form right now.
lefutur

if OM's defense holds up they will the team to beat this season i reckon
Nicolas

Oops, it looks like Marseille actually did destroy Auxerre! Oh, well, I guess we will survive even if we're one position behind OM. This is definetely going to be a very interesting championship, and that is one hell of a good thing if you ask me! With all these powerful and fired up rivals, this 8th title would mean much more to me than just a piece of silverware. After all, isn't this the point of sport?
Konol

Pjanic plays best as attacking midfielder,but he can also play as a winger.And i think his stronger foot is right.I can't understand why he didn't play today.
"Never change a winning team!".Maybe Pjanic wasn't the best in the first game,but Lyon won and that's only thing that matters.He could also start today the game,at least he could play in the second half,but he didn't come in.I don't understand the trainer.
John

Muco: Pjanic was primarily playing CMF on the left side, or LMF. I've also seen him play AMF behind the strikers,LWF,RMF, and Striker. But primarily he seemed most comfortable in central midfield on the left.
Nicolas

It's over - a goalless draw. It's not a very good result, especially with all the chances we have missed, but we shouldn't really feel downhearted, our defense is working just fine and visiting Lorient is not really easy anyway. We're now second behind Grenoble, and if Marseille don't destroy Auxerre tonight, we'll stay thare until the next round.
lefutur

0-0 full time

boo
John

Benzema goal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
muco

Anyone knows where Pjanic was playing for Metz? I'm confused with his position: he doesnt have much speed and he loves to be a "play-maker", he is a perfect central miedfielder but I dont know if he is going to able to play elsewhere. The same thing could be said about Ederson and to a lesser extent Kallstrom.
John

Random Passenger: Delgado has always been a right winger as far as I know. I've never seen him on the left till this year. But I think we won't see anyone else, barring injury, on the right side except Gouvou, until Keita returns. As for Pjanic, I've only ever seen him on the right side as a striker, never out-wide. I think he's left-footed, prefers the left side, and doesn't like to cut-in from the right.
John

Bodmer is speaking like he's 100% sure that he will start. I think this is part of a Puel plan to keep him happy since he doesn't want to/can't send either Toulalan, Makoun, or Juninho to the bench, and he's also using wingers, so that cuts-out two more potential midfield spots. It also sounds like Cris will start. This doesn't make any sense to me, especially since he's been so unsure of his knee strength untill a couple of days ago. I say leave Cris on the bench and play Bodmer-Boumsong. Boumer has been solid since he's been here and deserves to start. Reader Muco is right: it's a slap in the face.
Nicolas

Damn, Juninho has just hit the crossbar with his free kick! We should really score soon, with so many chances missed - we could very well be punished by the end of the game. Let's hope otherwise!
muco

Boumsong not starting is pretty sick...I'm glad to see that Ederson is getting some well deserved playing time though.
Blutch

Another streaming link : Aslan Pencesi (never heard about this channel). Both Kanal A and Aslan Pencesi links are on this page :
http://myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?...
Salieri523

I hope Boumsong will play with Cris and not Bodmer+Cris, it would be an insult to Jean-Alain...
random passanger

can either delgado/pjanic also play on the right wing?
would be interesting to see both of them starting together
Blutch

The only streaming link I have found is TVA, but it's uncertain :
http://www.live-foot.com/fc-lo...
Konol

I hope that Pjanic will start the match.He'll do great when he gets used to other players in Lyon.First match he was ok,but he's a great talent and can do much more.
Fukudome

Bordeaux lost today so we are set to take a 3 point lead.. lets go LYON!!!!, congrats on this website and on this preview John and Inara

Fukudome