Olympique Lyonnais vs Rubin Kazan

A tough match here.

I expect them to park the bus and try some counters. We absolutely needs to convert our opportunities. With Lisandro, Gomis, Bastos, Briand, Pjanic available we have the possibility of doing damage but our defense is stil a little weak, less protected by the miedfield and with a player playing his second match for us (Koné).

What do you think?

OLpower wrote:I expect them to park the bus and try some counters.

Nailed it.

Nelson Valdez just signed for Rubin, I don't know if he'll debut or not though.

Gonna be pretty tough, very impressed with how Rubin demolished Kiev.

Lyon to edge it though.

Always had thing for Lyon, guess Il be cheering for them, then. Gl

Lyon's season is going to hinge on how the CBs perform. A lot of injuries and, thus, very inexperienced players on the pitch there. Hope they play well.

Lyon should have invested on a proper defense this summer, they did not.

They will struggle big time with that back line.

At some point i read about the interests for Douglas and Garay, but nothing.

Even Cris has been on a slippery slope for a long time now

Cris has become injury prone now with the age. He is injured too much and does not have the time to fully come back to a decent level. This is a true problem.

Mensah is always injured and it was a big error to keep him with the hope of not spending. We agreed term with Britos but could not pay the 10 millions price tag.

So we ended with the unexperienced Kone who had only played national and ligue 2 matchs but who was seen as the best player of his former team (Guimgamp). I hope he will adapt.

The priority now is on a DM, not a CB...

OLpower wrote:Cris has become injury prone now with the age. He is injured too much and does not have the time to fully come back to a decent level. This is a true problem.

Mensah is always injured and it was a big error to keep him with the hope of not spending. We agreed term with Britos but could not pay the 10 millions price tag.

So we ended with the unexperienced Kone who had only played national and ligue 2 matchs but who was seen as the best player of his former team (Guimgamp). I hope he will adapt.

The priority now is on a DM, not a CB...

Yeah. Pretty much relying on Lovren and Kone here. If one of them gets injured, massive problems. They both also have to play all 90 mins. One of Cris or Mensah need at least be available for sub duty.

There are a TON of DMs in France. Lyon should be able to snatch one up easily. If i were you guys, i'd jump on Fofana.

We are after NDinga very hard, the player wants to play for us very hard but Auxerre is making the situation very hard.

playing in Eastern Europe is really difficult. Lyon should try and score atleast 2 goals with keeping a cleansheet at home.

I see Lyon winning this overall

We usually have success against Eastern Europe clubs, hope it continues.

We have the same starting team than against Ajaccio:

Lloris-Reveilleire-Lovren-Koné-Cissokho-Kallstrom-Gonalons-Briand-Bastos-Gomis-Lisandro.

Pjanic will be our offensive sub option.

OL already losing...

Edit: 1-1 Gomis

And Lyon equalised.

Rubin is 4th-5th team in Russia nowadays. Proud, that they can put up a fight even though they are not top dogs anymore

Ryzhikov is God

2-1 HT

This is a nice match!!!

We had a nightmare start exacly like against Nice, we conceded at the second minute on corner. But exactly like Nice again we equalized right after. Bastos did a superb cross to Gomis who put a perfect finish.

The second goal was more a own goal but has been given to Gomis by UEFA. Bastos did a lot of work and Lisandro made the assist with a good pass.

On the game, we are playing a fluid and offensive football, this is beautiful to see. We are playing like a team and building great attacks. We have the code of Kazan defense today. We dominated most of the first half and had some good opportunities.

Kazan suprised me, they are not parking the bus completely (or they are bad at it) but they have some nice passing in the miedfield.

For the players, Gomis had two goals, Lisandro is playing well, Gonalons is owning in the miedfield and Bastos is dominating completely. He is showing class.

Nice summary, olpower

3-1 FT !!! Great match.

Rubin Kazan did try, they put up a good fight in the second half and pushed at the beginning. But ultimately thei lack a lethal striker and lack offensive talent to convert possession into goals. But they had us wobbled on all corners.

However we did take the control of the play back around 55-60th minutes and we started to attack again and again. We had some class collective move that gave me a lot of joy. We scored the 3-1 on corner with Kallstrom shooting the corner for a beautiful Briand header.

We had a golden opportunity for 4-1, Gomis made a magnificant run, eliminating two opponents on the counter and he could have shoot he was 1 vs 1 against the goal keeper but choose to pass to Bastos eliminating the GK of the action but a defender was there to counter Bastos. We really should have scord there.

It almost had a huge price because 2 minutes later LLoris made a good save.

But overall this is a good result, I like the way he got this result. we attacked again and again and never stopped to do it until the last second. Good work Remi, you are giving us hope after Puel.

Great result for Lyon

Bastos FTW!!!

rsinatra wrote:Bastos FTW!!!

He was on fire but a little disappointed to have to play as a left back for the majority of the second half when Cissokho was subbed. But he still ruled and attacked almost as much on the counters.

That's another point, we were leading 2-1 and Garde subbed our left back Cissokho for Miralem Pjanic. That's what I call coaching and trying his ideas.