Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Lyon in great position heading back to Madrid

What a start to the knock out stage of the Champions League - Lyon score a famous 1-0 victory versus Real Madrid. Lyon played a perfect game, controlling Kaka and Ronaldo and capitalizing on the counter. Makoun scored a screamer to give the French club the precious goal for a victory.



Delgado was a handful for Real and was unfortunate to not get his own goal (hitting the post on one occasion and missing his angled shot on another). Lloris also played a huge role in keeping the Lyon club in the game - making a huge save on Ronaldo.

Before we all get excited about the potential upset, let us not forget that there are still 90 minutes of footie to be played...at the Santiago Bernabeu. Granted Real will be without Alonso and Marcelo due to card violations, however it will be no small task for Lyon. They will need to play a very similar style as they did today - defend and look to counter. If Lyon can score an early goal it will force Real to score 3 goals...due to the away goal rule. However if Lyon look to hold their 1-0 lead I fear they might suffer the same result as in the San Siro from a few years ago, where they had a lead late in the match only to see Milan score 2 late goals to go through. Lyon need to realize they played a perfect game...but only have a 1 goal to show for it. Real Madrid will realize they played poorly and were fortunate to only be down by a goal and heading home.

It should be a very interesting return leg.

2 comments:

philip said...

I think Lyon should attack as much as they can. I still think Madrid will advance though. I say 55% Madrid - 45% Lyon.

GFC said...

I would agree, I think that the return leg will be very difficult for Lyon. They played the perfect match and if you look at it from a glass half empty sense, they only have 1 goal to show for it. Not sure they can keep up that form for 90 minutes in Madrid. However with Lloris they have a solid keeper that they can lean on. It should be very exciting regardless.