29 Nov 2008
Stade Gerland
1p.m. ET(1900 CET, 1800 GMT)

Lyon haven't even had time to savor their Wednesday win over Fiorentina that will see them through to the knock-out stages of the CL for the sixth time in six years. Lyon have had a hectic schedule as of late, with twelve matches in six weeks, not including international duty for some players like Benzema, Toulalan, and Grosso who all picked-up slight knocks.

Potential Lyon Target, Palermo/Dutch International CB Simon Kjaer

I don't think that anyone out there- except for maybe Ronald obviously- loves transfer rumors more than I do. And with the winter transfer window approaching, lots of rumors have begun to swirl around. Thankfully, there are none- except for possibly the 15-year-old AZ Alkmaar midfielder Adam Maher- on the offensive side of the ball, because if there were, I think I'd pull my hair out.

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.

To recap the situation in Lyon's Champions League group, Lyon and Bayern are level with eight points, with Lyon on top due to more goals scored. Fiorentina lie in third with three points, but at the moment, they have a better head to head record against Lyon. Steaua are fourth with only a single point and can only contend for a spot in the UEFA Cup.

Lyon's full-back crisis gets worse. WORSE! Is that even possible? From the OL website:

This afternoon's MRI confirmed a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament on Anthony Reveillere's left knee. Consequently, his season for Lyon is over.

Reveillere can now hang out in Lyon's very own hospital ward with Mathieu Bodmer, Cesar Delgado, Francois Clerc, Fabio Santos, and Miralem Pjanic.

Sorry for the short preview, but it's been a crazy week for me. To keep things short, Lyon are traveling to Paris tomorrow, and three days later, they will be traveling to Fiorentina for a crucial Champions League match. Unfortunately, Lyon's injury list continues to grow, so it will be difficult for Puel to continue implementing his rotation policy to keep his players fresh.

Alternatively: Benzema vs. Gourcuff. Puel vs. Blanc. First vs. Second. The Lyon Offside vs. The Bordeaux Offside. Inara vs. Jennifer. Etc.

All you need to know is that tomorrow features two of France's heavyweights in a game that could directly influence the title, both in terms of points and in terms of psychology.

Readers of this blog will know how much I detest Arsene Wenger and his policy of stealing the youth players of other clubs. I know other clubs do it too (Chelsea is another notable example), but Arsenal do it every other day. In fact, I protested this post that praised Arsenal's youth system chiefly because Arsenal's youth system is really just Arsene systematically purchasing well known young prospects from other clubs.

This is how we know the season has really started - when the domestic cup competitions starting clogging the calendar. From now until May (Lyon are going to win a quadruple this year, duh), there will be games every three days. Factor in internationals, and things look awfully brutal. Good thing Lyon have such a big squad, right?

Claude Puel has more on his mind than just the three points up for grabs in Monaco this weekend. He's got a squad that's still exhausted from their efforts against Steaua, he has a run of gauntlet games coming up this entire month, and he's hyper aware of the fact that he needs to avoid injuries to players as much as possible.

Recently my favorite Lyon player gave an interview to Le Progress. Jeremy Toulalan is a defensive stalwart and anchor in the Lyon midfield. Since coming in from Nantes, he has suprisingly more than filled-in the very large shoes of the departed Mahamadou Diarra.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about tomorrow's game. It's taken over three months, but Lyon are starting to play like the French champions they are. Players seem to be done screwing around, Claude Puel has finally found effective tactics, and even the injury list seems to be shortening by the day.

It's a strange, strange day when a team not named Lyon not only scores more goals but has a better away record (gone are the days when Lyon were the best at everything). But what is even stranger is that it's Le Mans flipping their skirt tails at us.

Yeah, I know, I can hardly believe it myself.

Judging by what's going on in practice these days, it looks like Claude Puel is taking those rumors of team infighting rather seriously. It's all about love and harmony, guys.

Coming off the set of The Sound of Music.

Benzema is pleased, but Keita would rather be someplace else.

I have a very low tolerence for "Diva-ish" behavior, no matter how talented a player may be. And as much as I dislike both of these immensly talented players, I decided to write a post because their fates may be intertwined- although higly unlikely- and I wouldn't mind seeing both of them possibly doing OL a big favor in the future, by negatively affecting the current #2 team in L1, Marseille.

The picture on the left has nothing to do with this post, but it makes me laugh for some reason. It just screams DORK! doesn't it? I don't know if it's the alien eyes, the crooked smile, or the extremely spiky hair, but I just can't look away from this picture, it has me in stitches. But at the same time, don't you just want to shout with glee that Hugo Lloris is OUR keeper as opposed to Milan's?

I know I normally do a post match write up after CL matches, but I'm running short of time and won't be able to do the usual photo and video fest. Plus most of what needed to be said has already been posted in the comments of this thread. So here are some additional thoughts:

1. Lyon are taking the concept of "the best defense is a good offense" a little too far.

Lyon are SO not ready for tomorrow. We've all seen how badly they've been playing the last few weeks...last month, really. Lyon haven't won a game in ages and have scored only a handful of goals from open play all season. I mean, how sad is it that their best chance of getting three points in Bucharest is to send their women's team out there?

Fortunately, the threat of strike has been resolved, with the UNFP (the players union) and the UCPF (the manager's union) coming to an agreement. Since this is a match preview, I won't go into the details, but you can read about why players wanted to go on strike and how the issue was resolved.

It's going to be one big family reunion as Lyon's ex-Lille crew comes face to face with their old team.

Remember how I said that China were becoming Lyon's new best friends? Well, it looks like Aulas takes this BFF business seriously because today Lyon launched a Chinese version of their official website, thanks to a partnership with TitanSport, a Chinese sports media giant.

Pretty soon OL will be signing token Chinese players a la Manchester United.

It's international week, so things are rather quiet on the Lyon front. Here's what's been going on:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fabio Grosso is back in training and is expected to play against Lille on October 18th. This is good news because if he does well, he play against Steaua a few days later.

Jean-Alain "Lowers the Boum" on Jimmy in last year's 2-0 win over Rennes.
After taking one point away at Bayern this week, Lyon get back to domestic business. Sunday, Lyon do battle with Stade Rennais FC. The squad will be traveling to Brittany and Le Stade de la Route de Lorient, hoping to leave with three points.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ahhh, hopefully we can have a slight respite from the recent Franco-Italian war that has errupted in our comments section of the post-Lyon-Fiorentina CL match, and during the lull in hostilities, get back to enjoying some L1 action!

Saturday, Lyon travel to Le Stade Jules Deschaseaux in the the northwestern region of Haute-Normandie to take on one of this year's promoted clubs, Le Havre AC.

Time really flies, huh? It feels like only yesterday when Lyon had once again shot themselves in the foot against Manchester United. And remember those back to back 3-0 defeats, one to Barcelona (almost understandable) and the other to Rangers (practically inconceivable)? I guess you could say that last year's Champions League campaign has more bad memories than good ones.

I guess he's not as old as some people thought.

Seriously, I don't understand why people even bother debating on who the best free kick specialist is. In the game today, there is surely no one better than our very own reincarnation of Jesus.

His goals were exactly what Lyon, down by two goals, needed to get back into the match.

Sorry that this match preview is so late, but I've been on vacation for the last two weeks, and John, who has kindly been covering in my absence, is traveling as well. So this is going to be a little shorter than normal.

This is the fifth game of the season, and Lyon and Marseille are still tied for first place, with Marseille ahead due to more goals scored.

As everyone's probably already heard, Fabio Grosso went down in the 18th min of Italy's 2-1 win over Cyprus. Fabio left the game with an injury to his flank. The diagnosis is two fractured ribs. It's believed he will be out of the Lyon line-up for at least one month. That amounts to Grosso missing at least (6) matches.

One derby down, one to go. Sunday Lyon will be traveling to Le Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to take on A.S. St. Etienne in the second derby of the season. This is the 96th derby the two teams have participated in. After having handled Grenoble Foot 38 in the first derby, Lyon will have to contend with a St.