2010-11 Coupe de la Ligue-Coupe de France thread [R]

i was hoping to see Lacazette get some time...

agreed,

for lyon, midfield Grenier-Pjanić-Gonalons performed well, and gomis was a real team player, Kim did good as a LB

after all i've said in the past about the coupe moustache it would have been hypocritical to put much emphasis on a victory here, but since we lost i can say i really was counting on this win... right now what we need is "serenity" which translated means enough points and good play to get the fans and the press off puel's back.

the good play we did get, OL really got the better of PSG in the first half, and they almost held on with that one goal. after the equalizer it was russian roulette, both teams taking turns on the counter. besides hitting the wood 3 times, there's good to be seen in the performances of pied, gonalons, grenier, and in the biggest surprise, gassama. he really did a good job, hopefully he'll turn out OK.

wow, i did not see that coming, lucky back heel from Diakhate, 1-0

considering that this is the first real competitive game, i knew the team was going to struggle

glad to see toulalan back

you're all so lucky not to have seen this. nice was feisty but that's about all; even a decent match by all concerned would have put us through to the huitièmes against CFA2 powerhouse Drancy.

OGCN scored on a 98th minute corner that bounced around in front of goal until it went in. funny old goal you can't really blame on or credit to anyone, but they had a couple of clear chances that were inexcusable: a cris howler and a dreadful cissokho clearance... hugo saved the day both times.

disappointing. from 75' on it looked like the Gym had shot their wad on a tight press, cris had found his marks after a horrific first half, pied for licha had perked up the attack... despite a very pale match up to then victory was looking inevitable.

chances, we had a few: a handful of middle distance shots mostly right at letizi, a gomis header that just missed on 86' and källstrom fluffing a sitter in overtime, our best chance, served up sweetly by RVR raiding brilliantly into the area. he along with lövren and lloris the only gones who were really up to snuff.

you can add gomis: he did fine with what he had but with the midfield offering no real alternative to going direct to bafé nice was able to concentrate on bottling him up very tight. there's the rub. besides getting eaten up on 50-50 balls neither kim nor yoyo created much after a very nice gourcuff-lisandro-gomis-gourcuff combination on about 10'.

that was also the last good thing i can remember licha doing. he can't be angry at anyone but himself for being brought off before the hour. cissokho and he were worse than transparent on the left, they were a liability; a shame we didn't try the right more, antho was excellent, bastos less flamboyant but at least got that nice cross to gomis on one of the rare balls that got up to him.

the last word? usually you expect subs to bring on some zing. but briand and delgado were useless. with 10 men i still felt we had a good chance to get to PK's, but playing at 8 les carottes étaient cuites.

a real derby atmosphere including turpin sending everyone to the changing rooms when he got pelted by the green angels after calling the clear penalty.

a very opportunistic goal from a very good briand who left no task undone back to front. lacazette very dangerous; holds onto the ball well and certainly can slip behind defenses. the péno was solid and completely down to his skill. källström and gonalons very hungry, big matches from both of them. lovren and especially cris were very good and they had to be because both cissokho and dabo had a tendancy to put them in trouble (though dabo settled down in the last half hour). ederson and bastos less decisive (though bastos hit his PK with perfect cool even after being given 10 minutes to ruminate on it) but their technique was very useful in the general domination we kept all match in the middle. what work vercoutre had to do was done well; having him as n°2 all these years has been a boon to us few clubs can count on.

drawing the LOSC at home is a good thing. the first half at lille showed we can absolutely play at their level; next time we'll do it 90' instead of 45', for the sake of revenge if nothing else.

claro hombre! twice he screwed up two great runs due to lack of playing time with the big boys: once briand sent him in when he had positioned himself laterally perfectly but 50 cm offside; once he wanted to go but second guessed himself not thinking he'd get the through pass... that bastos sent for him playstation perfect. (alex, if you can't trust bastos to get that pass through who do you think can?)

i don't see gomis being left off much, but with bastos out i'm sure we'll see him this weekend.