one final duty before going home for the weekend! some good news for this derby: both govou and juninho are both likely to be back. perrin says sidney is ready and juninho is 50-50, but since he practiced normally today and says his toe is getting better every day i think he'll be there. bodmer also seems OK. ASSE looked pale in bordeaux last night, but they have been better in G-G than away, and it is the derby after all, this is their champion's league. add to that the best defense at home in L1 this season (2 GA) and it's clear this match has to be taken very seriously. OL have brought back at least one point in every derby since 1994, but 5 draws out of the last 7. OL and bordeaux change partners this weekend, with girondins going to lorient. both they and les verts have one day less rest than their opponents, let's hope that helps a bit. and upon that, have a nice weekend!
Les Gones Benzema, Govou, Clerc, Grosso, Squillaci, Coupet, Bodmer, Kallstrom, Ben Arfa, Crosas, Toulalan Les Verts Ilan, Gomis, Varrault, Nivaldo, Tavlardise, Dabo, ViviNi, Dernis, Matuidi, Landrin, Perrin
Poor first half defensively. Unfathomable botch job by Coupet to give the ASSES the lead in the 45. Squillaci almost gifted them a goal earlier as well. Combined that with the offsides goal by Gomis and Lyon could easily be down 3 zero right now. Benzema is seeing little of the ball, with Ben Arfa calling most of the shots so far.
Coupet deserves it. During the past week, he said that St-Etienne would leave the victory to Bordeaux because both clubs, St-Etienne and Bordeaux, have a friendly relationship. From what I know, Bordeaux struggled to win against St-Etienne. After France - Scotland he said that he would have stopped Mcfadden's strike. God is watching you, Coupet
Unbelievable finish to a frustrating game. Lyon bossed much of the second half and fully deserved to get a point out of this match. That and the Asses first goal was crap. Benzema and Fred both missed quality chances to tie the game at the half hour mark. That's when it looked the most bleak. Then Perrin takes Ben Arfa out in the 70th and I'm in hysterics, wondering why that just happened. Shortly thereafter, Clerc makes a terrific run to the end line and lays a ball off to Fred, who is just standing there ball watching on the 6, as a perfect opportunity to go level slips through our grasps yet again. In the 75th comes the ultimate slap in the face, when Fred actually does right by the team and his goal gets wrongfully called offsides. To be fair i thought it was offsides initially too, but I'm sure the linesman had a better view of it. I was pretty much sullen after that, until Benzema earned that free kick in stoppage time. For some reason I had a real good feeling about it. When the Asses set up there wall i saw someone make the sign of the cross ( I think it was Gomis). I said to my brother, 'Ha, he think's God's on their side? six straight championships say otherwise'. And lo and behold Benzema steps up, and fires a complete cannon strike to the top left side of the net. And Pandemonium insues. God Bless Benzema.
i think Perrin was right to use the 4-4-2 in the second half, without juninho the 4-3-3 wasnt working, although i would have pulled govou instead of ben arfa. maybe he was punishing him for trying to run around the goalkeeper on that play he should have scored from.
the biggest lesson from this match was that right now, without juni there is no OL. the front three were good enough yesterday, but it's no good just chucking balls up to them the way toulalan and källström were doing. crosas was a non-entity, and if clerc and especially grosso brought their game forward with some insistancy, fullbacks can't run an attack, only offer solutions to he who is... which since le mans has been no one. i'm not going to be too hard on coupet for his blunder; that clearance under pressure was actually very well done... except it hit gomis right on the head . and he really had to stretch on dernis' FK, and otherwise did a credible job... but was not as reassuring in the air as he used to be; he may be 100% physically but he's not yet 100% at his usual level. squillaci and bodmer were OK, toto was in fact very good. HBA was undecided on a couple of very important occasions but i was surprised to see him sub out for delgado... govou made a good return to action, and benzema showed great maturity on that FK... not only! they really did about as well as could be expected considering the service they got... and tavlaridis' great match. if there is a bright spot it's the combativity, the refusal to lose that carried on right up to the end, that has been an OL trademark these past years. to be honest, OL was very poor last night. but it's not dishonest to imagine that with juni in crosas' spot they might have been brilliant.