Pauleta 2 – 3 Lyon. Boring? I don’t think so.

By: Inara | October 29th, 2007

Today’s game between French heavyweights PSG and Lyon was a slap in the face of L1’s goal drought. Ninety minutes of goals, near misses, off the post shots, red and yellow cards, and a heated audience kept anyone watching riveted to their seats.

See, French football can be entertaining!

Edit: added extended video highlights.

Goals: Lyon (Ben Arfa 40, 43, Govou 84), Paris (Pauleta 60, 91) . Video highlights and photos at end of post.
Sanctions: Lyon (red – Anderson 50), PSG (yellow – Sankhare 53, Pauleta 55, Diane 78)

Tactics: 4-3-3 a la lyonnais

Vercoutre
Clerc – Squillaci – Anderson – Belhadj
Bodmer – Fabio Santos – Juninho
Govou – Benzema – Ben Arfa

At least that’s what the formation looked like until Anderson was sent off. After that, Mathieu Bodmer dropped back into defense, which left Juninho and Fabio Santos holding it together in midfield. Anthony Reveillere replaced Hatem Ben Arfa, which meant Francois Clerc shifted forward to become a RW. Juninho was also taken off to be replaced by Kim Kallstrom, which was also meant to add some strength to Lyon’s midfield. The only offensive substitution was Fred coming on for Benzema.

Player Performances:

Hi Hatem, will you marry me?

Ben Arfa scores his first ever brace.

Yes, he was that good. His two goals aside, he was constantly running up and down both sides, alternately attacking and sometimes even defending, and he was also providing some beautiful passes, as well as some fancy footwork. As for his goals – well, he’s never scored a brace before, and until today, his tally in L1 was…1 goal (as well as one for the France NT). It was again very clear today that there is a great degree of complicity and understanding between Ben Arfa and Benzema.

But it’s also clear that for all the progress Ben Arfa has made, he still needs to work on maintaining a cool head and making the correct decisions (something that Benzema does rather well for his age). Ben Arfa missed what easily could have led to a hat trick if it hadn’t been his insistence on keeping the ball longer than he should have. Thankfully, he himself acknowledges that it was “greedy” and that he would watch the tapes and learn from that mistake. Also, in his post-match interview, he admitted to being worried about Bernard Lacombe boxing his ears for that miss.

Karim Benzema also had a fantastic performance though it took him a while to get into the game. He suffered a knock to his knee thanks to a careless tackle by Ceara (I think). He looked winded and limped for a bit, which caused a lot of concern, not just for Laurie and me, but also for Alain Perrin & company. Thankfully he shook it off and played great (hitting the post, beautiful occasions, wonderful build up plays, one of which resulted in Ben Arfa’s second goal). Still, Benzema needs to be careful and not be overplayed.

Look, Govou had a good match!

Sidney Govou had a good match, did well defensively when Anderson went off, and also provided the third goal. I still wished I’d seen Kader Keita though. The midfield also looked great today, the Bodmer-Santos-Juni triangle very effective. Fabio Santos was a beast and did well in browbeating PSG’s midfield for many stretches of the match. Bodmer also looked really good though a bit shaky, but he’s been rotating between midfield and defense so much that it’s no wonder he’s confused.

As for Juninho, well, he’s had better matches, but I appreciated the effort he put into spurring on his teammates. And though he was on the bench when Govou scored, it was fun to see him jump onto Govou and Clerc. The fourth official was not very happy with that. Kallstrom’s presence later on was meant to offer the spark that Juni couldn’t provide today, which turned out to be the right decision, because within minutes of Kallstrom coming onto the pitch, he barreled down the side and cut his way through PSG’s defense, which led to the third goal.

Defensively, I think Sebastien Squillaci had one of his better matches. He was great at tackling and intercepting the ball. Anderson unfortunately got expelled (he had a late tackle on Amara Diane, and he was the last defender), so that didn’t earn him too many points. It was probably a bit harsh, but roolz are roolz.

Nadir Belhadj had a GREAT match. He actually looked better today than Fabio Grosso has all season. He was everywhere tonight and did a good job defensively (which is something we hardly see these days at left back). One thing he does need to do that Grosso does so well is work on his crosses. Belhadj is a good short distance passer, but some of his long range efforts were wide off the mark.

Belhadj: the other left back.

Clerc also had a good match, and his performance today erased his performance from the Barcelona match. He also provided the all important assist to Govou’s goal, and he had some good tackles and excellent passing today. And as for Remy Vercoutre…today was a typical day for him. Typical because he once again messed up in the air and basically handed PSG their first goal on a silver platter. No exaggeration – even Pauleta was surprised when he scored because his shot wasn’t so much a shot as it was his foot accidentally making contact with the ball, which was loose in the box from a poorly cleared corner kick.

To make matters worse, Lyon conceded the second goal in the EXACT same way. Jerome Rothen took a corner kick on the right hand side, which ended up on the left edge of the box, which resulted in Pauleta awkwardly kicking the ball with his right foot, and the ball bouncing into the net.

I hope Lyon doesn’t extend Vercoutre’s contract.

Match Analysis:

Thanks to the win, Lyon are now four points ahead of second place Nancy. So even though Nancy have a game in hand, Lyon are unquestionably the leaders. But it’s not a comfortable lead by any means because Rennes seem to have discovered their own momentum, and Bordeaux are still within six points at fourth. Still, it’s nice to follow a good Champions League match by a good domestic match. Often times, Lyon will perform poorly in matches following a European game because of some funky mood, so it’s good to see that it wasn’t the case today.

I’m also hoping that the team is growing into each other. They are getting used to each other’s styles and ways of playing, which is cutting down on awkwardness between the players. Perrin did mention that one of things Lyon is working on is communication – apparently there are some language problems between Anderson, Squillaci, and Vercoutre. Anderson, who’s been in France for less than two months, doesn’t know French, so I’m guessing Perrin is working on making a system for his two CBs to understand each other.

Fabio almost has us saying “Tou-la-who.”

Fabio Santos on the other hand seems to have made a good adjustment, and Fred’s French is good enough now that he’ll consent to interviews without a Portuguese translator.

Anyway, next up is a Coupe de la Ligue (the League Cup) match this Wednesday against Caen. As champions, Lyon (along with runner-up Marseille) get a bye to the round of 16. Since these cup matches are an opportunity for squad rotation, chances are that we’ll see players who have vanished, like Baros, Keita, Belhadj, and perhaps even some youth players. But more on that on Tuesday.

Match Highlights:

Match Photos: