Lyon vs. The Bestest Team in the Whole Wide World*

By: Inara | February 23rd, 2009

*At least according to the Offside bloggers.

What I love about football is that no results should ever be taken for granted. Just because Barcelona are most likely to win doesn’t mean that they will. A team of superstars they may be, but at the end of the day, they are all human (well maybe not Lionel Messi) and are prone to slip ups and mistakes. So if you think Lyon are already doomed, well, just ask Espanyol.

February 24, 2008
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
2:45 PM ET (20:45 CET, 19:45 GMT)

Background info:

There isn’t much I can say about Barca that hasn’t been said by everybody else. You can read Rob’s preview over at the Champions League Offside, Daryl’s predictions over at the main page, and Isaiah’s preview at the Barca Offside. So I’m going to skip all the ominous Barca statistics and just say that besides their admittedly freak loss to Espanyol over the weekend, the last time they lost was sometime during the last Ice Age.

They’ve got a whole host of talented players like Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o, Daniel Alves, Xavi, Carlos Puyol, Gabriel Milito, Alexander Hleb, and Andrés Iniesta. And of course an entire posse of ex-L1′ers: Yaya Toure, Thierry Henry, Seydou Keita, and Eric Abidal. Normally I’d said that the good news is that both Abidal and Iniesta are injured, but with a bench like that, it doesn’t really matter. They have many players to cause us to worry and will ensure that Claude Puel spends a sleepless night debating tactics.

In La Liga, they are in first place (duh). Of the 24 league games Barca has played so far this season, they have 19 wins, 3 draws, and 2 losses. They’ve scored a mind boggling 71 goals and have conceded only 20. In the Champions League, their record is equally as impressive, with four wins, one draw, and one lose, and with 18 goals scored and 8 conceded. But don’t let the stats make you feel doomed – while their goal scoring tally is impressive, keep in mind that the playing philosophy is different in Spain, where more goals are scored and conceded, whereas in France, the opposite is true.

Lyon are also in first place, and contrary to popular belief, it hasn’t been easy. They’ve had to work really hard to retain their dominance, thanks in large part to the unusual amount of competitiveness in France this year. Of the 25 league games played, Lyon have notched 15 wins, 7 draws, and 3 losses. They’ve scored 35 goals and conceded 16. In the CL group stages, they have 4 wins and 2 draws, with 14 goals scored and 10 allowed. Incidentally, both Messi and Karim Benzema are tied (along with Miroslav Klose and Steven Gerrard) for most goals scored in the tournament so far, with 5.

Lyon are going into this match knowing that everyone is expecting them to lose, and truly, a win would be a labeled as an upset. But that doesn’t mean the players feel the same way. They are raring to go, and even if the rest of the world considers Lyon to be minnows, the players themselves don’t.

Team info:

Barcelona will be missing three first team players due to injury. Gabriel Milito is still recovering while Andres Iniesta and Eric Abidal received muscle injuries recently.

Le groupe barcelonais: Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Sylvinho, Puyol, Víctor Sánchez, Cáceres, Piqué, Márquez, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Gudjohnsen, Keita, Touré Yaya, Hleb, Messi, Eto’o, Bojan, Henry.

On the Lyon side of things…well of course I have injuries to report. Fabio Santos picked up an injury in training (again), as did Mathieu Bodmer. Sidney Govou is out with his achilles injury while both Anthony Reveillere and Francois Clerc are just beginning training. The GREAT news is that John Mensah isn’t on the injuries list. YAY!

Le groupe lyonnais: Lloris, Vercoutre – Gassama, Mensah, Cris, Boumsong, Grosso, Källström, Juninho, Makoun, Toulalan, Pjanic, Mounier, Delgado, Ederson, Benzema, Piquionne, Keita.

Oh look who is missing out – Fred. I’m actually a little bit surprised, to be honest. While I’m glad he’s being punished for his petulance (more on that tomorrow) by being dropped from league games, I didn’t expect that to extend to the Champions League, where Lyon’s only backup striker is Frederic Piquionne. But I guess Fred is so out of shape that he couldn’t do much anyway.

Expected lineup:

Expect a fast paced game tomorrow – Puel has pointed out that Barca has so many world class talents that containing them isn’t a viable option. After all, we simply don’t have the defensive strength to do that. So the best tactic for Lyon will be to showcase their own attacking talents. After all, the world is so busy talking about Barca’s forwards that they have little regard for Lyon’s – and I’m not just talking about Benzema. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

Lloris
Mensah – Cris – Boumsong – Grosso
Toulalan – Makoun – Juninho
Ederson – Benzema – Delgado

First, the defense. I would be exceedingly surprised if Lamine Gassama played at RB. True, John Mensah was set off last week against Le Havre, but that was more due to his being unsettled by the racist chants. Tomorrow he’ll be at home in the Gerland, so hopefully he’s recovered from that. He’s done alright in the RB position, and he’s such a gigantic player that he could just stand on the right hand side and be a wall all by himself. In the center are of course Cris and Jean-Alain Boumsong, who has really proved me wrong about his reputation. He’s been solid all season and has been even steadier than Cris, who, by the way, is one yellow card away from a suspension. And of course Fabio Grosso, who was rested last weekend, will be on the left.

In midfield, I’m pretty sure Puel will go with both Jeremy Toulalan and Jean II Makoun. Both are tradionally DMs, but Makoun moves up further on the pitch and supports the attackers while Toulalan primarily stays back and rarely ventures into the opponents half. Juninho, who was also rested over the weekend, is sure to start.

Up front is on one hand obvious and on the other, a mystery. Naturally Karim Benzema will start, the question is, who will be at his sides. Ederson was rested over the weekend, and he’s been doing really well recently, so he looks to be a sure bet to start. The other spot will go either to Kader Keita or Cesar Delgado. My bet is Delgado, who accompanied Puel to the press conference and who has been amazing the last couple of weeks. Delgado’s best position is right behind Benzema, but with three midfield players, Puel still needs two wingers to support the striker, so this time he’ll have to cut in from the side.

I just want to add a note on Delgado and Ederson, who are finally proving their worth. Ederson has been terrific these past two months, a real goal threat who works well with both Juninho and Benzema. Delgado is finally getting the recognition he deserves, not just from his teammates and Puel, but even from other coaches and players. Even Gaurdiola singled out Delgado for praise, saying that Lyon had it’s own gifted Argentine. So look for these two players to surprise.

Viewing options:

Good and bad news. While this game will be getting coverage on ESPN, it’ll be live only on ESPN Deportes and on tape delay on ESPN Classic (at 5 PM). However, the game will be live on ESPN360. com, but the only way you can access that is if it’s supported by your internet provider (the website will tell you if it is). On Setanta, the game will be on tape delay in the US (at 9 PM) and supposedly live on Setanta 2 UK (supposedly because there are two different schedules). This game is also live on Sky Sports 2 (also in the UK).

If television isn’t an option, you’ll find many streams here, or if you are interested in stability and ease of access, you can buy a stream from UEFA.com for $10 (btw, the prices have gone up – it was only $8 in November!).

Expected Result:

2-1 for Lyon. Call me an optimist, but there you have it!