It looks like the threats of Jean-Michel Aulas to quit if the city continued to deadlock Lyon's plans for a new stadium have finally forced the city leaders into committing to Project OL Land, now scheduled to be completed on June 2013.

The agreement was signed by six parties: Olympique Lyonnais, the State, the department of the Rhone region, Grand Lyon (the greater agglomeration of Lyon), the city of Decines, and Systral (in charge of transporation in Lyon).

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These 3-0 losses are starting to turn into a yearly ritual. A humiliating one.

The game was so bad that Lyon's official website posted a highlight video that was only three minutes long - usually they are around twenty minutes. Watching it, I realized why. Apart from Mickael Pagis's three goals, not much else happened.

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4 seeds are the new 3 seeds; or, Transylvanians, Cypriots & Belarusians are legit. BATE were very fortunate to be eying a blonde Austrian rather than a turban-sporting Italian in net, but they were never predicted to sneak a deserved point. Cluj proved their Roma win was no fluke, even if they used a vastly different [. Click to continue reading...

Match pictures and highlights at the bottom of the post.

THE GOOD:

Definitely the man of the match...on both sides.

Hugo Lloris.

He's definitely shaken off the jitters that afflicted him in the Fiorentina match.

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Blue days at the Allianz Bate and Bayern had the same idea in the second halves of their respective matches. Hold on for a home draw. However unlike Bate, Bayern Munich happened to be one of the 10 richest clubs in the world. Lyon visited the Allianz tonight and scraped by with a 1-1 [...] Click to continue reading...

Okay, so a draw isn't exactly a win. But it's also not a 5-2 loss of the type that Bayern Munich saw against Werder Bremen a couple of weeks ago, or a 1-0 loss like they suffered to Hannover last weekend. And given that Lyon's Champions League goal today was actually a Demichelis [...] Click to continue reading...

Allez Lyon!!!

Lyon:

Lloris
Reveillere - Cris - Bodmer - Kallstrom
Juninho - Toulalan - Makoun
Govou - Fred - Benzema

Bench: Vercoutre, Boumsong, Kallstrom, Ederson, Piquionne, Mounier

Bayern:

Rensing
Oddo - Breno - Lucio - Lahm
Schweinsteiger - Demichelis - Ze Roberto - Ribery
Klose - Toni

Bench: Butt, Van Buyten, Podolski, Ottl, Van Bommel, Sosa, Borowski

Feel free to post commentary, frustrations, and thoughts here during and after the game.

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For Champions League Matchday 2 we're going to try something a little different. Rather than LiveBlogging just the one game here on the front page, we're going to do an all inclusive LiveBlogaganza to try and follow all eight games simultaneously. Foolish? Probably. But the plan is to have a place where we can discuss [. Click to continue reading...

Since Lyon have only one point so far - from a home game at that - it's crucial that they walk away with at least a point tomorrow evening in Munich. With Fiorentina taking on Steaua in Italy, it's likely the Italians will get three points, so unless Lyon want to hang out in the bottom of the group, a good performance tomorrow is a must.

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I bet The Voyeur is pissed.

Chelsea scout Guy Hillion confirmed that the club inked 12-year-old Jeremy Boga from ASPTT Marseille.

The Blues beat out Lyon, Bordeaux and big Marseille for the young one's signature. More to the point, his father has been working in London for a couple of years, leading to Boga's decision to join Chelsea.

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Week 2: Group F: Uefa Champions League Bayern Munchen are meeting Olympique Lyon in the second round of the Champions League, tuesday 30th. Don`t forget to sign up 11×2.com - the next big football site   Watch the match LIVE here! Click to continue reading...

Matchday 2 of the 08/09 UEFA Champions League will be played out on 30 Sep / 1 Oct - we have the head-to-head records for the clubs involved, a look at the predictions for each group and the highlights going into this round of the Champions League group stages. Did you know? Celtic have failed to win [. Click to continue reading...

Mourinho holds his tongue after Milan show talk is cheap.



Alberto Gilardino came up with one of the goals of the weekend to help Fiorentina beat Genoa 1-0 on Saturday. He now has three Serie A goals in five games, as well as a Champions League brace against Lyon. Click to continue reading...

Rivals Manchester United and Manchester City are to lock horns in a battle to sign Lyon striker Karim Benzema. The French international has become of of Europe's hottest properties in recent months and he has caught the eye of both Mark Hughes and Sir Alex Ferguson in particular.

Lyon recently said they would not let Benzema leave for anything less than £80 million, a price that City could certainly meet now they are super rich. Click to continue reading...

Sir Alex is once again linked with this supremely talented Frenchman, but he will have to fight off his newly-minted neighbours Manchester City! MANCHESTER UNITED and Manchester City have been warned they must splash out a world record £80million for Lyon striker Karim Benzema. The French striker is one of Europe's . Click to continue reading...

In light of the recent accusations that Lyon get favored by arbitration by getting calls decided their way and the brouhaha over video replays, I thought I would post the results of an in depth investigation by Nice Matin, who took a look at every single error in every single Ligue 1 match in the 2007/2008 season.

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Lyon recently revealed that Benzema's contract had a 100m Euro 'get-out' clause. Assuming that this is for non-French clubs instead of just for French clubs, it effectively prices out any European club from buying the player anytime soon. The price hasn't stopped the press from speculating on Benzema's future though, with Manchester City and Manchester United [. Click to continue reading...

It's (arguably) Google's 10th birthday today. Obviously a lot of readers find The Offside via Google, and most of the search terms that land people here are obvious and enough. Things like team names and player names. But not all of them. Here's a selection of some of the more interesting search terms that have bought people [. Click to continue reading...

Claude Puel says that the only game he's thinking about is tomorrow's game against Nancy, but we all know he's lying because next Tuesday is Lyon's crucial match against Bayern Munich, a game that Lyon need to get at least a draw in if they want to keep their hopes of qualifying for the round of 16.

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One of my least favorite subjects- aside from ethnic cleansing, and life threatning diseases- is Lyon's resident brat, Frederico Chaves Guedes Fred. Fred recently gave an interview in French on OL's website. Since they didn't offer an English translation- and annoyingly, OL doesn't offers translations for alot of their articles- I thought I'd share a verbatim of the interview.

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News is slow and I felt like writing about something, so I thought I'd bring everybody up to speed on OL's injuries, since this weekend we play AS Nancy and next week we're off to Bayern for match day 2 of the CL next Tuesday. There is good and bad news.

The BAD:

Juninho: Juni had an MRI this week and was diagnosed with a strained adductor.

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Arsene Wenger's plans to sign Lyon striker Karim Benzema look dead in the water after the French club stated they would want a world record £80million to let the player leave. Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas claims the 20-year-old's contract with the French champions stated that any would-be suitors would have to stump up the mind-boggling fee [. Click to continue reading...

Good luck trying to get this guy away from Lyon before 2013.

That's about $146 million for my American audience. Click to continue reading...

According to L'Equipe, this is Lyon's best league start to a season since 2001/2002. Unbeaten in all their games, with five wins and a draw, they are already four points ahead of second placed Marseille. And despite having a defense that would make even the bravest of people whimper with fear, Lyon conceded only two goals so far, giving them the best defense in the league.

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Things are going well for the Eastlands outfit and Mark Hughes must feel like a child in a sweet shop. Now he is aiming for the icing on the cake! Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager! Manchester City are planning a sensational £25million swoop for Lyon striker Karim Benzema. Mark Hughes . Click to continue reading...

It remained a busy weekend for American players in Europe today as Carlos Bocanegra put in a good 90s minutes for Stade Rennais as they drew Nancy 0-0. Rennes is off to a slow start, currently sitting in 12th place with seven points.

Down in Spain, Jozy Altidore dressed but did not play for Villarreal in their 2-1 win over Numancia. Click to continue reading...

Galatasaray'ın bu kadro ile herhangi bir takıma dört gol atması sürpriz olmaz. Hele hele Nonda'nın son vuruşlardaki beceriksizliğine rağmen; Lincoln, Kewell ve Baros bu denli istekliyse. Ancak asıl sorun Bellinzona gibi bir takımdan 3 gol yemek. Son yarım saatte rakibin 10 kişi oynadığı ve Galatasaray orta sahasının, pardon sadece defansif orta sahadaki tek kişinin çaresizliği de düşünülünce. Click to continue reading...

Just a quick editorial note to start, I had hoped to complete my Group Previews before Matchday 1 but that was not the case. I will still be pushing those out, hopefully finish before Matchday 2 hits. Now, on to last night's action. After absences last season for perennial Champions League participants Bayern Munich (pictured at [. Click to continue reading...

Goal-shy Manchester United kicked off their Champions League title defence with a tepid 0-0 home draw against Villarreal in their opening Group E match on Wednesday. Former champions Juventus celebrated their return to Europe's top flight with a 1-0 win over Zenit St Petersburg while Real Madrid strolled to a 2-0 home win over Belarus first-timers BATE Borisov. Click to continue reading...

Fiorentina had the French "Lion" almost tamed. In their nth rendez-vous with top European football (since the 2001-02 season, OL have won 7 consecutive Ligue 1 championships), Lyon started the match at ferocious pace, but after a couple whip-cracks by Alberto Gilardino (coupled with an almost flawless Viola defence) the beast had stopped roaring. Click to continue reading...

Şampiyonlar Ligi'nin ilk haftası bitti. Cluj ve Anorthosis ilk gün maçlarından sonra en büyük sürprizleri yaptılar, ilk haftanın ikinci gününde büyük sürpriz olmadı. E Grubu'ndan gol sesi çıkmadı, ManU-Villareal, Celtic-Aalborg maçları golsüz. Steaua evinde Bayern Münih'e 1-0 mağlup oldu. Click to continue reading...

If the day-glo yellow didn't work for Chelsea, it was never going to work for Lyon - even in a less blinding hue. Though a bit of credit is due, because they have improved since their Native American motif of the mid-90's. (Exceptionally hideous picture of Ludovic Giuly wearing the XXXL edition and looking ready [. Click to continue reading...

I suppose if winning is everything, there's nothing wrong with that. However, there's an unwritten code in football that if an injured player is down on the pitch, you put the ball out of play for him to receive treatment and be escorted off. No can do for Lyon, who not only played around him, [...] Click to continue reading...

Wednesday Sept 17th Lyon v Fiorentina, Group F Juventus v Zenit St Petersburg, Group H Yesterday's Results for Italian Clubs Roma 1 - 2 CFR Cluj, Group A Panathinaikos 0 -2 Inter, Group B goalscorers for Inter - Mancini (27′), Adriano (85′)   Bookmark to: Click to continue reading...

Dear Lyon,

Don't screw this up.

Hugs and kisses,

Me

Lyon:

Lloris
Reveillere - Boumsong - Bodmer - Kallstrom
Makoun - Toulalan - Juninho
Govou - Fred - Benzema

Bench: Vercoutre, Gassama, Cris, Mensah, Pjanic, Ederson, Piquionne, Mounier

Fiorentina:

Frey
Zauri - Kroldrup - Dainelli - Vargas
Kuzmanovic - Melo - Montolivo - Almiron
Gilardino - Mutu

Bench: Storari, Donadel, Jovetic, Gobbi, Jorgensen, Santana, Pazzini

Feel free to post commentary, frustrations, and thoughts here during and after the game.

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