PSG vs. LYON
By: John | April 24th, 2009
Week 33
Friday, April 24, 2009
Stade de Gerland
2:30EST(20:30CET, 19:30GMT)
Well, last weekend, Lyon lost the first of it’s “make-or-break” matches this season. OL have suffered another set-back in the race for the title, but Friday will see another crucial fixture in which Lyon will have to fight tooth and nail vs. PSG. Well, there is still a glimmer of remote hope for the title: Marseille has a very tuff remaining schedule as well, with matches against Lille, Toulouse, OL, and Rennes. But realistically it’s mostly just well-wishing, because if Lyon don’t don’t snap-out of their slumber in this game, there’s no way this OL squad will put together six wins in a row vs. stiff competition; add to that that Bordeaux’s final stretch is a cake-walk. So what- pray tell- will OL be fighting for you may ask? Why, the third and final bearth for the CL of course; not to mention that a loss would- aside from allowing PSG to move into third- also give Lille and Toulouse an opening to mount a final assualt for that same final spot. Imagine a currently, impotent Lyon trying desperately to gouge-out the eyes of a hungry Lille or Toulouse side clamoring for final CL spot. Frightning huh? This is scarier than Toulalan’s waredrobe. I don’t think anyone out there would have dreamt-up this nightmare-scenario at the beginning of the season; losing the title maybe, but not this.
History: Lyon are 13-9-7 vs. PSG. OL lost to PSG at the Park in their last meeting 1-0 in week fifteen.
PSG’s Current Form: PSG are currently fourth in the league- just one point behind OL(59)- and have an overall 18-5-9 record. They are fourth overall in “away” record(6-4-6). PSG is coming-off a 3-0 walloping of L2-bound Le Havre last weekend. But aside from this, they have been in stale form lately. They were beaten like a dead horse by Dynamo Kyiv last week in the UEFA Cup 3-0, and and in the league have gone 3-1-2 in their last six, with wins against Lorient, Nice and the aforementioned Le Havre; a respectable draw at Lille, but getting trounced 4-1 at Toulouse and 3-1 at home vs. Marseille.
Despite having the third-ranked offense-(46) goals- and the second highest scorer in the league,Guillaume Hoarau with (17) goals, PSG are seriously behind the L1 frontrunner on goal differential, due to their defense which is ranked eigth and has allowed (33) goals, that’s ten more than league leader Toulouse. It’s very rare lately that PSG put-up more than one goal a game. They haven’t managed to do it- aside from Le Havre last weekend- since week twenty-six vs. Nancy. Anyway, I’m sure all this writing is for not, because OL seem like a mamed animal with no desire to fight back, but hopefully we won’t be watching some of the more hungry predators take large chunks out of Lyon’s flank for the remaining six matches. Hopefully, the players have been slapped hard by reality and this last loss jars them into action; let’s hope.
Injuries: Govou and Delgado are still out.
Le groupe: Lloris, Vercoutre- Mensah, Cris, Boumsong, Réveillère, Clerc, Grosso- Toulalan, Bodmer, Makoun, Källström, Juninho, Fabio Santos- Keita, Ederson, Pjanic, Mounier, Piquionne, Benzema.
Line-up:
Lloris
Clerc-Cris-Boumsong-Grosso
Juninho-Toulalan-Makoun
Keita-Benzema-Ederson
Category: Team News and Rumors
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Comments
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what i dont understand is why puel never switches to a 2 striker formation late in the game when lyon really need a goal. from what i understand he pulled bodmer and moved benzema over to the left wing when piquionne came on. at least today he started with only 1 defensive mid instead of his usual 2 which is why we saw more attacking play than usual but at some point you need to take some risks and go for broke. i mean these are all must win games, a tie is as good as a loss.
Posted from
United States
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Lefutur: I’m wondering the same thing about the 4-4-2. He shoul’ve put Ederson and LMF, Keita at RMF- no alternatives- and gone with two strikers. Benzema is too tired at the end of the game to be effective on the wing and his talent- even though he’s in a funk now- is squandered. And I still can’t understand whey the hell he pulled Bodmer.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
Didn’t watch the match. Had school Very disappointed with the result, especially 0-0. Out of 33 league matches this season, we’ve been held scoreless 10 times compared to just 4 times last season. Also, we scored four or more goals 5 times last season compared to none this season. That kind of sums of Puel’s style.
Posted from
United States -
Jepp, I want attacking football again!
Posted from
Norway -
I watch Stuttgart game against Frankfurt. Very impressive 2-0 victory, and we need striker like Mario Gomez.
Posted from
United States -
Marseille now six points clear,by wednesday we could be four behind Bordeaux
Posted from
United States -
If Bordeaux, manages to go past the Rennes hurdle, they are my favourites for the titles. They have an easy calendar after this game.
Posted from
Japan -
Next season we must say goodby to Cris and Piquionne. And we must buy, as I said, Mario Gomez, and Bruno Alves, Quaresma, Mancini, Bastos, Mathieu … This season, we gone be happy if we finnish season 2nd. But also we must continued to fight because nothing is over. We still can beat Marseille at Velodrome, and also Marseille can lose some other games before derby. Allez Lyonnias, we belive in you.
Posted from
United States -
Remember all the hype about Gomez before Euro 2008, and how big a flop he was there?
Also on Bastos – is he really that great? The penalty he didn’t score against Marseille yesterday was just sad.
I think Lyon have underperformed this season, but they’ve also had some pretty rough luck. Our lineup isn’t bad – they just haven’t had time to gel since everyone has come back from injury. The 0-0 against PSG was unfortunate but at the same time, we can’t expect to win every time we play well. We won some stinkers earlier in the season (think of that 3-2 over Nice – didn’t deserve that one, Juninho’s 40-yard fk could have been called offside on Piquionne).
So, all in all, as long as we make the CL cut, I think we can be satisfied (although a little disappointed) with how this season went.
Don’t know what to say about Cris as of late – he has had some shockers but had been really really solid for most of the season. But there’s no need to call for his shiny head on a plate, just for a run of poor form. Imagine if he had fallen apart in December or January – we’d be in 7th place right now.
Posted from
Canada -
I have a feeling that Lyon will sign Shevchenko and Odemwingie in the summer and a defender,and thats it.Though that will be crap
Posted from
United States -
The thing is we need to get some of the veterans out of the..atleast starting lineup, both juninho and cris are past their best, and should get bench roles, we should also get rid of all the shit we have been buying like keita, delgado, grosso, piq etc..
Posted from
Norway -
Well… if we lose both Cris and Juninho, then next year will definitely be a transition year. Who would be our guts players then?
I don’t want to talk about who we will sign or not, that is just non-sense talk, as we don’t even know if we will be in the Champions League or not next season.
A 4th place would be bad for financial reasons, but not dramatic. Still we would lose a lot of players if that was the case, and would have more difficulties in getting “big” names.Posted from
Japan -
Agreed, those two- Juni and Cris- are are backbone. Some players talk a good deal in the media, but no other leaders seem to be emerging. Lloris has a good head on his shoulders but seems too shy. I thought Boumsong was showing signs of becoming a leader, but he’s seemed to have backed-away from the role lately.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
give toulalan the armband if they leave…guarantee it’ll make a diff
Posted from
United States -
Did you see Rennes have lead 1-0 against Bordeaux. Also Bordeaux have red car … now Bordeaux have one goal lead 1-2. Stupid Rennes.
Posted from
United States -
That’s like the second or third time Bordeaux have pulled off a win with 10 men or less.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
This is a better label than Inara’s “Baby-Poaching.”
http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/04/29/1236721/bayern-chief-accuses-arsenal-boss-wenger-of-child-traffickingPosted from
Costa Rica -
With 10 men in the field Bordeaux pulled a great 2-3 victory. Gourcuff in 93rd minute. Stupid Rennes, I mean they think that game is over, but game is not over until ref blow his wisthle.
Posted from
United States -
This is really a horror season for me personally. Not only did Lyon have an awful season, but my other favourite club, Red Star Belgrade, actually is on the brink of destruction because of debts and years of mismanagement. Definetely a season to forget, but at least the Serbian NT’s doing just fine so I’m not ‘that’ depressed…
Posted from
United States -
Id like branislav Ivanovic-very versatile
Posted from
United States -
You like or would like Ivanovic? I’d like Ribery but I ain’t gonna happen. I read he can play CB and RB. Anything else?
Posted from
Costa Rica -
defencive midfielder and Left back,also Chelsea will sell him thats a certainty(despite his recent playing time)No big-big teams are interested either unless you call fiorentina big. Probably would cost 7 mill
Posted from
United States -
I talk about transfers seeing as theres nothing else of interest to talk about regards lyon right now,besides everyone must have a slight interest in transfer suggestions by me or anyone. I think we should add Ivanovic,Apam,Bastos,Remy,Mbokani/Odemwingie/Guerrero/Erding/Pogrebnyak then that will add some quality and depth to whats a fairweather out fit at best right now.
Posted from
United States -
Ivanović? He’s probably better than all of our CB’s and RB’s, and yes, he’s very versatile and can play in some other positions as well. However, why would Chelsea sell him now? Carvalho is past his best and Fereira and Belletti aren’t quite good enough to be a replacement for Bosingwa, so there isn’t actually such a high competition in Chelsea’s defence for him to be sold. I admit it would be a dream come true for me, but it simply ain’t going to happen. Plus, the guy was bought for 15 million euros, why would they sell him now for less?
Posted from
United States -
I have a feeling the backline isn’t going to see any changes except maybe a back-up leftback:Cris won’t be benched, Mensah can’t be given-away, much less sold, Boumsong has done a good job and will retain his spot; I don’t know how good Paillot has been at Grenoble, but he’s returning, and you always have Bodmer in a pinch. As much as I love transfer talk and I’m dying for summer to get here so I can write about transfer news, it seems pointless sometimes if we don’t even know if we’ll make the CL; but what the hell, it’s fun! Our immedeate needs are LW,RW,CF, and back-up LB. My list of wants includes: Apam, Remy(can play both wings and CF), Bastos(LW our most pressing need), Mathieu (Although I doubt Grosso will be leaving), Gignac/Erding. Players that I like but would probably be out of reach or surplus requirments: M. Dabo, Matuidi, Sessegon, Sakho, Hazard, Feghouli. What do you guys think about Alassane of Le Havre? I haven’t seen him play that much, but he seems like a possible inexpensive #2/3.
Posted from
Costa Rica
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