Valenciennes vs. Lyon

By: Inara | March 29th, 2008

Ugh. I hate playing Valenciennes. They’re one of my least favorite teams in Ligue 1, mostly because of their tactics. But they are one of the last few obstacles in our stroll to the title (it stopped being a race a few weeks ago), so it’s important Lyon get their three points. Last season at Valenciennes, Lyon walked away with a draw, so Perrin will be looking to do better this year.

March 30th, 2008
Stade Nungesser, Valenciennes
11 AM Eastern Time (20:00 CET, 19:00 GMT)

Match background:

As I said, snooze fest. Valenciennes wouldn’t know attacking football if it hit them in their faces - especially when they play Lyon. Since Valenciennes can’t hope to compete with Lyon on a technical level, their preferred tactics are keeping ten men behind the ball and clogging up the field with tons of fouls. It was against Valenciennes last year that Karim Benzema picked up his first hamstring injury.

Against them, Lyon often have no choice but to send their entire team forward with only a single defender left in their own half. That makes it easy for Steve Savidan, Valenciennes’ best player and one of the better strikers in France. He had a great time embarrassing Cris, Sebastien Squillaci, and Gregory Coupet by himself last year.

Anyhoo, Valenciennes started off the year pretty strongly and hung out in the top three for several weeks. But then gravity kicked in, and now they’re languishing in midtable obscurity, though given the tight nature of the French topflight, still within reach of a European spot for next year. Right now, they’re in 9th place, with 36 goals scored and 29 conceded. They’ve only lost twice at home this season, with only eight goals conceded. Last weekend, they beat Bordeaux at home 3-1.

Savidan is their top scorer, with 10 goals. Johan Audel follows with 7. Their goalkeeper, Nicolas Penneteau, is solid. And that’s about it for their noteworthy players. Well, there is Abdeslam Ouaddou, but he’s in the news for entirely different reasons.

Lyon are nine points ahead of Bordeaux, who have a tough game at Nancy to contend with. With the best away record (7 wins), and with 62 goals scored and 28 conceded, Lyon have the advantage on paper.

Too bad paper never met a stubborn team like Valenciennes….

Lyon info:

Yes, it’s true. Lyon wunderkid Karim Benzema is injured and will be out for the next three weeks. He twisted his knee last weeked against PSG and has to miss out on more chances to add to his goal tally. But Benzema’s gotten over his disappointment and admitted that while his injury sucks, he’s glad he has an opportunity to catch a breather. He’s played in nearly all of Lyon’s games this season, and given Perrin’s refusal to bench him, he’s dead tired. Remember, he’s only 20, and last year, he was Lyon’s third choice striker. So he’s definitely not used to this level of intensity.

No other new injuries to report. Cleber Anderson and Patrick Muller are healing quite nicely though.

Le groupe lyonnais:Coupet, Vercoutre, Grosso, Clerc, Réveillère, Boumsong, Squillaci, Cris, Toulalan, Crosas, Bodmer, Juninho, Källström, Ben Arfa, Govou, Keita, Delgado, Fred

Expected lineup:

According to Perrin, Benzema’s injury won’t change his tactics. Yeah right. Perrin feels insecure and exposed without Benzema. But anyway, this means that Hatem Ben Arfa has a chance to earn back his starting spot since Perrin can’t deploy his archnemesis Benzema there.

Coupet
Clerc - Squillaci - Cris - Grosso
Bodmer - Toulalan - Juninho
Keita - Fred - Ben Arfa

Francois Clerc had a pretty good game against England, so I can see Perrin rewarding him with the start over Anthony Reveillere. Also, Clerc is more offensive, which is useful when you play against a parked bus. Sebastien Squillaci didn’t play at all for France, but Jean-Alain Boumsong did, so in this case, Squillaci needs the time.

In midfield, a player like Mathieu Bodmer is especially important against Valenciennes, since he’s more likely to create space than Kim Kallstrom. Juninho should get the start because in this type of game, a free kick might make all the difference (not that Juninho doesn’t have any other qualities).

Up front, Kader Keita should get the chance to continue his progression into becoming the player he was at Lille. Fred is our only fit striker - good thing he’s in form. As for LW, both Sidney Govou and Ben Arfa can play there, and deep down inside, I think Perrin will go with Govou, but I’m going to wish for Ben Arfa.

Viewing options:

Setanta isn’t showing this match. Booo. They’ll be showing “Football Funnies” and then a repeat of the Coupe de la Ligue final. Booo. Good thing there are streams to fall back on.

Expected result:

Last time I got yelled at for being too cynical. So I’m going to go with a 3-0 victory for Lyon. That’s really optimistic, but it’s my prediction, so there.