Se7en

Wanna see how a return flight looks like after such an accomplishment?
Check this : http://video.lequipe.fr/video/...

This morning, the French Online Betting Authority launched an investigation to see if there was anything suspicious about last night's result.
They just announced they hadn't found any abnormality.

So much for the betting conspiracy.

a few points about last night, gonna ignore the obvious things;
1. anyone who doubted Gomis over the last 2 years, just watch his movement on the 4th goal. honestly, if you can't see he has class, you know nothing about football.
2. Lloris's double save could go down as one of the best saves in history if it wasn't for the goal to follow, he is a mutant and quite simply the world's best goalkeeper.
3. fofana is rather disappointing, cant quite figure out if he is better on the offence or defense, he just seems invisible at times.
4. Cissokho loves the CL.
5. while some people obviously call this game fix, let me assure you, its not, zagreb are really that terrible. if anything, i'd look into the linesman at the Ajax match, who was truely our man of the match (truly outrages calls).

Love comments 1& 2. As for Fofana, I felt the same way about Gonalons last year, and NEVER EVER EVER, did I think he'd be able to come close to being worthy of licking Toulalan's boots, but boy was I wrong! I think Fofana just needs some more time.
On another note, let's please hope we never see Dabo on at LB again. He showed were he should be played last night. And Cris out= only one goal conceaded. Hummm.

Fofana might've been invisible, but his lowest level of play was way higher than Gonalons' lowest level, who completely sucks and looks so uninterested when he's having a bad day. I liked Fofana in his couple of games this year (Real Madrid, Caen, Auxerre), but of course he still needs experience to grow consistency and stuff...
I think Dabo can be an upgrade on LB over Cissokho despite being unfortunate to earn that red card on that position. He's gotta sweet left footed cross and his simple passing is also incrediby precise, plus he's good at dribbling and holding onto to the ball, unlike Cissokho.
As for Cris, I really thought Garde would be smarter than Puel in that aspect. Especially now when he has Kone, not Diakhate, as an option.

1st Lyon had a clear penalty disallowed in the last game against Ajax 2nd Dinamo scored first  3rd it was a weak Lyon Line-up 3rd even if those goals were allowed for Ajax it would have ended 3-2 which in that case Lyon would still go through so whoever wants to cry,argue and hate feel free because Lyon did it fair and square and Lyon will be playing Champions league in February not Ajax

Well, seriously I'm sure there will be plenty of conspiracy theories. 
Let's be cautious about that sort of comments. And realistic. 
The simple fact that Dinamo scored first simply excludes all of this.
At that moment, the chances of Lyon qualifying sunk from maybe 3% to what, 1%?

Also, we struggled in the first half and weren't getting anywhere. Some players caused us problems; the goalie stopped a ready-made goal from Lacazette; and I found this Sammir guy quite interesting, I'm sure other clubs will have noticed him.

Then, what happened is that after Gonalons' goal - fairly lucky we have to admit, the ball bouncing on his knee, shoulder etc.. - their morale took a blow. That was the twist of that game, for a team who had absolutely nothing to win anymore except looking more or less decent. From that goal on, they knew they couldn't win, started to feel the fatigue and just waited for the end to come so they could all go on holidays, as they have no more championship games after that.

The thing that doesn't sit well with me was how pathetic Dinamo's defense was.

This is a team that's scored 22 goals and only conceded 1 in 8 home league games.
A team that's scored 8 goals and only conceded 1 in 3 home champions league qualifying games.
A team that only conceded 1 goal at home to Madrid and 2 to Ajax.
That's 30 goals scored and only 5 conceded in 13 home games.
Compare that to our away form this year: 12 games, 14 goals scored, 17 conceded.

I know our form's changed in the last few weeks thanks to a healthy roster but we went up 4-1 without even playing our best team (Revelliere, Kallstrom, Ederson, Bastos and Lisandro all rested) so that's not a valid reason.

14 hours on and i'm still completely stunned by this result!

Well, living in Croatia and knowing a lot about Dinamo, I can tell you that it's most probably the worst club that's played in CL for last couple of years. Yes, their defense was highlighted as the best part of their team, but with their 3 out of 4 CB's injured, they had to play Leko at CB (who's a very rough, not much intelligent tackler, should've been sent off vs Real Madrid couple of times), so it's no surprise the guy's been sent off (completely deserved). Their whole team has almost zero CL experience and they are famous for being real chokers (almost blowing their 4-1 advantage over Malmo in CL qualifying rounds, also got red carded in 2nd leg). So that awfully poor defending we've witnessed last night was typical for them when they fall apart; plus physically they're far from the level of Lyon so after their good first half, it comes at no surprise they were barely running and covering our attackers.
Even with our 2nd lineup RG put out yesterday, I knew Dinamo should have no chance but to concede at least 3 goals; so with a man down and a young midfielder at CB, doubling that tally was logical.
So all in all, this result comes to me as no surprise, and Dinamo's awful performance. The only shock to me is the goal we conceded; that should have never happened and it was a symbol of how bad we were the 1st half; Garde completely deservedly fumed and shouted at our players. I hope this attitude of his contintues.

I won't pretend miracles can be explained (at least by me) but if you see Dinamo's recent form, it's been poor (read one of the very first posts of this thread, by poster Luka Skugor).
 They're in a bad phase right now, conceded 6 goals to Real 2 weeks ago, and now 7 to us. It's a good thing for them that they can now go on holidays starting today... 

Haha wow.. as much as i'd like to think we were brilliant tonight I can't help but feel Dinamo were bought by someone. No champions league team defends THAT badly. Dinamo's sporting director already got investigated last year for match fixing a cup match against Hajduk, but never charged.

We have some unknown betting cartel to thank for our last-16 spot, fingers crossed we can capitalise with our full strength team. Commiserations to the Ajax fans. An injury crisis, some terrible ref calls & Dinamo tanking cost you a spot.

And did you see the Ajax - Real ref had an earpiece, and that at some point Aulas seemed to talk to the collar of his jacket? Surely he had a mike there to give instructions to the ref in Amsterdam.

Just to clarify, I don't think Lyon were involved in any way. Not with that 1st half performance and the lineup Garde put out. If evidence comes out of match fixing I strongly doubt we have anything to worry about.

I suspect some mafia/triad type group would be the orchestrators if this game was indeed fixed. There would've been a ton of $$ to make betting on Lyon to advance.

Innocent until proven guilty, please.

Meanwhile, Dinamo has sacked its coach overnight for the Group stages performance that led them to score just 3 goals and concede 22, the worst ever by any team in the Champions League group stages. 

The most surprising part was that it was Gomis, who been out to lunch for weeks if not months, and Cissokho, who really made it happen tonight.  

How much did you pay Zagreb for the game? ;)

They refused to take cash. Said they only take payment in Awesomeness.

Lyon has done nothing but profit from other people's stupidity and have been very very fortunate. The Portuguese linesman who cancelled two goals from ajax which should have counted was clearly retarded or bribed. So were the defenders from Dinamo Zagreb. I mean their players could just walk through defense. A player from Dinamo even winks at one of Lyon during the match after a goal. Then there the keeper who ridiculously jumps OVER the ball. I really dont trust any of it. Also the fact that they were 1-0 up and way too happy about it, since they didnt achieve anything with it, is suspicious. If there is no bribing scandal on the other hand, the whole situation is even more beyond my grasp of understanding.

Even if Ajax was given the two goals, Lyon would have gone through on total goals scored criterion (9 goals vs. 8 goals). 
And if you're going to argue that Ajax would have strived harder with score 2-2, then might I remind you Real Madrid would too, and Lyon had the ball for a large amount of time at the end, and Lyon would have scored 5 more if they had the inclination.

i really wish we actually had enough money to bribe all these people as you suggest.

U mad bro?

if you'd seen the game you'd understand. this game was sold.

If it is fixing that you're worried about, you need to understand that Gomis is absolutely unable to finish like that "on purpose". He's either brilliant or terrible, no middle ground.

just look at Zagreb's keeper winking after one of the goals...

but to be honest, both Lyon and Ajax would have been eliminated in the next round anyway ;p

I saw Ajax coach winking at Mourinho after losing the match. Fixed too, do you think?

 oh yes....the wink. that absolute positive proof of a match fix. get this man to C.S.I. he's a genius. especially since this "wink" was by a player who wasn't even the keeper but a defender who was not even involved with the goal. and he supposedly winked, or gestured, after Gomis tried to get the ball out of the back of the net and the defender, Leko, picked up the ball first. Gomis reached over to try to get the ball, you to get the play started again quickly, and Leko appeared to say something like "ok ok" and then cheekily handed the ball to Lisandro instead. Nice try, Bro.

But we will get the money, you know. ;)

Gomis just set a Record with the fastest Hatrick in the uefa champions league which is 7 minutes

And the fastest 4 goals ever in 25 minutes!

Amazing--simply amazing. I really had no hope and when Dinamo scored I thought--yeah this sucks. But I continued watching and a miracle happened. Thanks Lyon for the early Christmas present!!!!!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEES Just like i said LYON are going to pull it off Tonite and thats what they did Incredible Incredible Incredible i Cant believe what i just saw 

Bernard Lacombe just explained that Rémi Garde, in the locker room at the break, shouted at the players like he had never done before. Looks like it worked...

Rémi Garde, who would have been shot down in flames for his surprising team compo had the score remained as it was at the break, is now hailed as official genious.

Glorious glorious night! Fairy tales do come alive! :D

Gourcuff top runner tonight with 12.8 km

OL: 700 passes completed in that game. I bet 500 were in the last 5 minutes!

Wohoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OL are officially qualified for the CL. Unbelievable evening, truly incredible!

Game over!!!!

Madrid has hit a third!

Lyon probably winning the record of passes to keep the ball. .. About 247 as I type.

Cannot believe it! Cannot believe it! Cannot believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

allez!!! i'm in tears! what fucking spirit! allez!!

ALLEZ LES GONES!!!!!!

FIXED!!!!

This is just in-cre-di-ble!

Yay! Briand! 1-7!

Gomis and Cissokho are having an unbelievable game

WOWWW!!! HOLY!! PLEASE MADRID KEEP A CLEAN SHEET!

Goal! 4th by Gomis! 1-6!

GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

Just reached home. And WOW!! :D

If OL or Real score now we are qualified for CL!!!

wait we still need one more?! i though that was it? we're now tied in GD. so what happens if it ends like this?!

Eder on for Lacazette

1-5!

Licha scored!

Gomis is on fire. He almost scored again.

allez lyonnais! pleasee! lets do this! and come on madrid, you can put one more in!

Lovren out (injured?) replaced by Gonalons, and Lisandro on in a 4-4-2

one more, and a benzema brace...

Licha to come on

HOLY. MOLY.

omg. this has match-fixing written all over it!!!! 4-1 are you kidding me?

Tss tss. Pure talent, that is :)

hahaha i cant help but find this sketchy!!!! idk....

Incredible hattrick by Gomis!

holy shit!!!
fuck, all my links died. guys, links. please!!

Goal Gomis! 1-4!

1-3, could a miracle be possible?

Goal! Gomis!

Goal! Gonalons!

Quite frustrating first half. 2 clear opportunities missed by an OL team with one man more. Not enough commitment and hunger to face the challenge.

57% possession for OL, 11 shots, 6 on target. There's room for a miracle, if the players decide to go for it and play with ambition.

garde better start the second half with bastos and licha. its the only way. ambition is good, but this lyon side right now without licha and bastos doesnt have the talent to pull this through.

we still need 5 more goals. this is possible, we just gotta push all we have, they're down to 10 men for fuck's sake, bring in licha, bring in bastos. we can do this.

1-1 half time.

I'd be happy to get one dollar for each ball lost by OL.

Goal by Gomis. 1-1 .

this is a shit line up. this is fucking terrible. dont understand why this side is playing when we need goals. im furious. and madrid is doing their part...

Ajax 0 - 2 Real

why is this line up playing?
clearly gourcuff and gomis are shit, thats why we're even in this position to begin with, cuff and gomis.
i know licha's tired but we need goals and there's no bastos, there's no lopez.
fuck.

Gourcuff doesn't get many balls (passers tend to bypass him) but Gomis is one of the most active players tonight.
It can be a good option to exhaust Zagreb and then have Licha fresh and hungry on the field.

that's a good option to win a game. but we dont wanna just win, we need to smash zagreb. i understand with licha being tired and all, but at least play bastos... you know?
he's siding this team i feel because he never believed there was a chance to begin with. thats my impression, it wasnt tactical, it was hopelessness.

gomis is shit huh?  ;)

Unacceptable. They scored.

despite two exceptional saves from Lloris!

Wow Hugo saved us. That shouldn't be...

How could Lacazette miss that goal?

Gomis did well to get that. It didn't seem fully deserved.

Leko gets a red!

Ajax vs Real 0-1 for now.

It will be interesting to see how we do.  Has he ever used this lineup in a game before?

Wow, Garde is pushing it to the extreme : Lisandro, Ederson, Réveillère, Kallström, Cris on the bench!

When does the Europa League action start for us?

Never, dude, never.

If we just needed to win by 2 goals I would say we have a great chance but the goal difference is really killing us. I remember last season when we were losing in the Group Stage--I cant remember what team--but at halftime Puel told the team to worry about goal difference. And though we lost, we pulled 2 back at the end--which in the end put us through to the next round. I wish we had been thinking about that more during those RM games where we let the score drift. Oh well. Going out may give us a lift in the league.

Dinamo is in a mess. They have played draw against poor croatian division 1. sides in last 3 games. Lyon could easily score 3 or 4 goals tonight, especially if they play as they played against Tolouse!

I will be at tonights game, hopefully I will be a wittnes of a great Lyon breakthrough in 1/16 finals ;)

Real will get the job done, I know that!

May you be right...

Told you so :D