Post-Fiorentina Break-Down.

By: John | November 26th, 2008

Despite the continuing string of injuries- that would have crippled a mere mortal team- Lyon are through to the knock-out stages of the CL. Doing much better than just picking-up the minimum one point needed before Tuesday’s match in order to advance past the group stages, Lyon walked in and out of Stadio Artemio Franchi like they owned the place and took 3 points- and probably some Bistecca alla Fiorentina- with them. Although not perfect, Lyon put on a fine display of football, playing agressively on offensive, and overall, playing a tight, collective defense- albiet outside the box.

We’ll start with the defence. This backline has driven me to drink Pepto- bismol on a regular basis.

Cris: Had a fairly solid game and got better as the game wore-on with a couple of nice clearences in the second half. Cris looks to be back to his old self. Cris also picked-up a second yellow, so he’ll miss the Bayern game.

Boumsong: had an ok game, he was good early on but his concentration lapsed at times with the best example of this being one of his bungled clearence which he put onto the foot of a Fiore player, but luckily it was cleared by Mensah. This almost tied the game.

The “Glass Ghanean” John Mensah: Mensah had a fairly solid game, barring the aerial duel he lost with Gilardino- a cross from the left that Gilardino headed-in for a goal. He’s a much better right back than a left back. He played very good defense and even shot-in a nice cross that Gouvou nearly toe-poked in for a goal.

Fabio Grosso: Played attacking football early-on until tiring near the second half. He was instrumental in starting many pushes up the field. Fabio plalyed good defense, and obviously saved a goal from a right side cross when Lloris was caught out of goal.

Toulalan: Toulalan was a defensive bulwark, as usual.

Makoun: Attacked during the first half, constantly moving up field and scored the first goal. Played more defensively during the second half, and like Toulalan, did his defensive duties.

Juninho: Excellent. Agressive early on, deadly on set pieces. Sebastian Frey must have blessed the cross-bar with holy water because it’s the only thing that kept-out two stunnigly beautiful free-kicks by the greatest free-kick taker ever. F#$K David Beckham and Del Piero!!!! Juni also had a nice cross in- a volley- that Ederson cracked off of the cross-bar and he also played a pivotal role in both goals: starting a the break by feeding Keita who later fed Benzema to Makoun for the firtst goal, and stealing the ball and feeding Karim for Lyon’s second goal.

Govou: Sidney looked exhausted and should have been subed-out early on. He was not match fit. He did track-back to help Grosso on defense and had a couple of good runs.

Keita: He showed flashes of his inate brilliance. He was agressive, showed excellent ball control, had several nice crosses into the box- on the first goal he layed the pass across the face of the goal and if Benzema would have hustled foward it would have been an easy goal. And he even played good defensive. He had lots of energy. He lost the ball a couple of times, but overall I was very happy with his effort.

Benzema: What else can be said about the boy! Karim is a cold-blooded killer! The way that he waited on the goal line, holding the ball untill he found Makoun open, was as cool of an assist as you’ll ever see. And his goal beating the CB and Frey was priceless. Karim along with Juni were the men of the match, although Cris and Keita deserve honorable mention as well.

The defense continues to be a problem. The CBs played well together, but there was something about the defense I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I thought that the fowards and mids defended very well as a unit, but the problems in the box continue. Fiorentina had to shoot form afar most of the first half and the only real danger came from crosses and set-pieces. Balls-in from the front of the box were especially problematic, and Lloris had to be as thankful to the cross-bar as Frey, because I counted at least two or three instances that the bar saved our butts.

Anyway, Lyon are through to the next round for the 6th time in six years.

Clubs Statistics
Fiorentina Lyon
1 Goals scored 2
7 Shots on target 6
12 Shots wide 4
1 Shots blocked 2
3 Yellow card 2
0 Red card 0
10 Fouls committed 15
10 Corners 5
4 Offsides 7
27′ 36” Ball. Poss. (time) 27′ 24”
50% Ball. Poss. (%) 50%