[Carles]

Lyon vs FC Barcelona
Stade Gerland (Lyon) | Tue, Feb 24 | 20.45

​

Back to the Champion's league to face the French reigning champs. We're clearly favorites but after the last results les Lyonnais' confidence will be much higher and after resting all his guys this week-end, Claude Puel's men will be fired up to get a result at home.

Abidal got injured in the derby and initial reports say he's gonna miss the next two months. Puyol will probably slot into his position.
Iniesta too will miss the match due to his muscular injury. The rest are fit to play.

Probable line-up:
Valdes
Alves-Piqué-Marquez-Puyol
Touré
Xavi-------Busquets
Messi--------------Henry
Eto'o

SOM-HI BARÇA!!​

 

[Boludo Perdido]

Well if we want to be optimistic (I'm not usually that dude, as you may have noticed ), we can see it this way:

We lost against Numancia, drew against Racing and then played the CL - won - and butchered all teams all season long. NOW we drew against Betis, lost against Espanyol and will play the CL, should we win against Lyon then will be back to butchering team after team and never lose another game this season that means anything.

Would be freakky if it actually happened.

 

[camer]

After the complete disaster of tonight. I hope we regroup and take care of business this tuesday. We've been conceding far too many goals lately.

 

[PetritH]

We should go for a win there.. we should not concede any goal there.

 

[mv..]

We're conceding because we're not patient. The game should be built up, each from scratch. We attack too rabid.

With our great games, we got carried away and became overconfident which turned to greed. That's why the opponents succeed to profit with relying on our anxiety. That way we lose control of the short passes, put more and more attackers from behind, saturate the game zone, then try crosses which are predictable for such saturation... and counters kill us.

 

[Carles]

The Marquez-Piqué tandem doesn't really inspire me confidence. They don't seem to form a good partnership and it's shame Abidal got injured because Puyon in the center with either of them is a much better combination.

I wish Sylvinho would be given a chance. The guy has performed pretty well every time he was called upon but that's a long shot and it's not gonna happen.

Another thing, Xavi needs to step it up. He's been playing way below par the last couple of games but nobody seems to mention it. He's the maestro of our midfield and the burden of creation and organization falls on his shoulders.

 

[Jeffrey]

Here are some of the most recent comments from the respective thread from the French sub-forum:

Réveillère and Clerc are not back, are they ? At least they haven't had any minutes in official competition as far as i know. So who will play right back, a perturbated Mensah, Santos ?

Sorry but i think it is the worst Olympique Lyonnais side for about 3 or 4 years. I don't honestly seems them defeating Barça on two legs...

i don't what expecting from this match.
we have no defense.

That is a problem.

[]

a win for lyon and a lose for barça.
that is a good sign.
i heard the CBs cris and boumesong has been perfect.
plus, lloris stopped a penalty.

une lueur d'espoir...

 

[FC Barcelona9]

The Marquez-Piqué tandem doesn't really inspire me confidence. They don't seem to form a good partnership and it's shame Abidal got injured because Puyon in the center with either of them is a much better combination.

I wish Sylvinho would be given a chance. The guy has performed pretty well every time he was called upon but that's a long shot and it's not gonna happen.

Another thing, Xavi needs to step it up. He's been playing way below par the last couple of games but nobody seems to mention it. He's the maestro of our midfield and the burden of creation and organization falls on his shoulders.

I hate playing Pique and Marquez in the middle, they can not gel together. Most of our goals conceded this seasons is while those to nut cases play together in the middle. I hope Abidal recovers soon, but it has been reported that he will only come back in late April which means at that time 7 La Liga games would be left. Sylvinho should have played last night instead of Puyi coming in, we needed someone to create a threat down the left flank and Puyi was not the perfect solution. Xavi and others have dropped down a notch in terms of creativity, I mean did you even notice Messi's presence last night?

La Liga on one side and the CL on another, the players need to realize that this is a 180 minutes tie and they should not rush into trying to secure their passage in the 1st leg. Lyon will try to go out for the win from the first minute, and our midfield needs to play a huge role in eliminating any threat. Toure and Busquets need to play and I would like to see Marquez and Puyi in the middle with Sylvinho playing as a LB, but I am sure this will not happen. Messi needs to wake up and stop living in the national team fantasy, he has been playing really quite as of late but you can blame that on fatigue and tiredness and I'm sure he will unleash his powers against Lyon.

 

[totow]

With Keita getting red carded in La Liga, i'm afraid Pep will play him in CL instead of Busi.. :undecide:
As for the LB solution, i dunno.. perhaps Pep should give either Sylvinho or Caceres opportunity to play in that position in the coming games. For this one, i think he'll opt with Puyol though..

 

[GICA]

No problem for me to play with Keita in this game. He isn´t that terrible as you say, and he´s better tactically for an away game. And if Sylvinho is in shape, I´d play with him.

 

[Leckan]

Keita is made for tough away games but he should never ever play at home again unless we have to. He doesn't have the creativity.

This game could be the first in a long time that Puyol and Marquez can finally play together again. Defenders need a lot of playing time together to create a chemistry and understanding and this is something we've lacked recently.

 

[Gade21]

I want this to be a thorough deadly statement of a game for us so I'd go for Biscuits over Keita this one. He's the most aggressive of our hard three and his ability to cover so well and close down players so quickly is exactly what we need this type game. We also know he's going to picks up tons of useful fouls for us. Yeah, so for me Biscuits is a definite. I'd also go for Sylvinho as well. I for one don't believe that we'll get raped with him out there and he'll add much more that Puyol could ever do going foward.

 

[Camp Nou]

Oh man...yesterday's game was too much, ruined my whole weekend.

I'm hoping for a better performance and result to help us bounce back, mentally.

 

[FC Barcelona9]

Think of Megan man, just think of Megan.

 

[Camp Nou]

Ahhhhhh, Megan...I suppose that might help.

 

[VBI]

This game should be good for us. Playing a real good team, with the home game to come, should be more relaxed, more able to play better football than the past couple of weeks.

 

[hypno]

I would like Benzema to score a goal like this one:

[tub]hMk3g58TYDE[/tub]

 

[Leckan]

It's nice to want things.

 

[zyad]

I would like Benzema to score a goal like this one:

[tub]hMk3g58TYDE[/tub]

And I want you to go **** yourself :ass: :happy: p

 

[camer]

With the way we've been conceding goals lately It wouldn't surprise me if they actually score a goal. 14 goals in 13 games conceded by us in all competitions since the beginning of the year. Not good I'm afraid.