The Lyon’s share

Perhaps Lyon’s domination of Ligue 1 isn’t down to luck. Coming off a shock defeat against Marseille, I was hoping Rennes could pull off a good result against a side that looked friable. But with 4 defeats on the run, Wiltord probably wished for better circumstances to meet his orgy friends…

Hatem Ben Arfa left 5 defenders in his wake to wrap up the match

Last year, Rennes prevented Lyon from clinching the title with a boring 0-0 draw in Rennes, after having become the first team to beat Lyon earlier in the season with a 0-1 win at Gerland. The season before, Rennes and Lyon had both won on the road, with a 1-3 win at the Stade de la Route de Lorient, and then a 1-4 thrashing in Gerland. So whilst the statistics favoured the away team, nothing was certain, with Rennes on their best start in 40 years, and Lyon seeming strangely fragile…

But what do you know, Lyon have two youngsters any club would like to have in their ranks : Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa. Benzema got the better of Rennes’ defence after 4 minutes, and a slightly clumsy tackle by Hansson on the edge of the box sent him tumbling down as though he had just been shot. It was a manly tackle, but Hansson did seem to just clip the ball away from Benzema’s feet. I’m dissapointed and disgusted at the way Benzema just flinged himself to the ground as soon as he thought he wouldn’t get the ball. And to add insult to injury, the referee awarded Lyon a penalty, even though the foul was right at the edge of the box, and I feel the challenge was outside…

Juninho makes it one…

As expected, Juninho cooly slotted the ball past Pouplin, who couldn’t be expected to do much. One goal down, and Rennes seemed to have a lot of difficulty going forwards. Dréossi’s 4-2-3-1 has been excellent so far this season, with Leroy, Fanni, Wiltord, Briand, Didot, Sorlin and Thomert all shining with it. But against Lyon, Dréossi couldn’t count on Didot, M’Bia or Mensah, all injured, and suddenly it seemed like something was amiss. Cheyrou and Sorlin were used as defensive midfielders, but they both lost the battle for midfield against Toulalan, Juninho and Källström. Without the support he was used to, Leroy’s ability to create was diminished, and he spent 45 minutes looking bad untill Dréossi flinged Briand in to bolster the attack during the second half, without much success…

Alongside Leroy were Pagis and Thomert, both of whom haven’t played much so far this season. Thomert put in a fabulous game against Metz, netting two goals, but since then has been out for a month and a half injured and hasn’t found his form yet. Pagis is an atypical support striker, and despite good performances has only been rewarded by one goal this season. Pagis seemed unable to cope with the sheer physical density of Lyon, and Thomert wasn’t helped by Sorlin or Edman, both very defensive on the left wing.

Wiltord tried hard but wasn’t rewarded

Wiltord started as a lone striker, but at half-time dropped to the right wing to let Briand take the front of the attack. His first-half display was decent, but not excellent. However, on the wing he seemed to find more place to develop his play, switching sides from time to time with Thomert very intelligently. The back four, Fanni-Hansson-Borne-Edman were decent, but lacked serenity after conceding the early goal. Fanni helped a lot to attack, but opened up his wing far too often, letting Ben Arfa get behind him. Hansson was on the recieving end of a terrible decision, but put in a good match afterwards. Borne and Edman both filled in well at the back, but never seemed certain. Understandable for the young Borne who replaced Mensah at the last minute, but dissapoing for Edman, always playing a little too defensively, meaning that Thomert was exposed to Govou and Reveillère far too often without any support.

Pouplin was the other player making his big “comeback”, and I bet he was wishing Perrin would rest Benzema, Ben Arfa, Grosso, Juninho, Källström, Toulalan, Fred and perhaps Govou and Keita as well. Sadly, it didn’t really go to play for him, as Lyon fielded a “best XI”. After an early penalty, he put in a good game, but after Fred came on Lyon played far more defensively.

Nobody took Ben Arfa, who took his goal beautifully.

The second goal of the night was a beautiful effort by Ben Arfa. He collected what seemed like an inconspicious throw-in by Grosso, spun past his man, knocked the ball through the whole of Rennes’ defence, leaving 5 players in his wake, and then blasted the ball almost through Pouplin, with an unstoppable shot. Brilliant goal, that wouldn’t be out of place as the goal of the week if Dia hadn’t one-upped Ben Arfa with a run past 7 players over 60 yards against Lille to serve Brison with a perfect pass…

But if Lyon were the better side during the first half, it wasn’t so in the second half. Lyon lost Benzema in what looked like a rather common clash with Cheyrou. He was stretchered off the pitch and was diagnosed with a large bruise that could prevent him from playing against Barcelona. The referee decided that it was a yellow-card offence, whilst I deemed it a rather stupid clash, where Benzema pretty much runs into a standing Cheyrou… Fred took Benzema’s place, but was a lot easier on Rennes’ defence, allowing Rennes to push forwards more and dominate the latter stages of the game… But whilst Lyon were rewarded for their first-half domination, Rennes weren’t.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

Subscribe   The Offside RSS Feeds

Print

Share