Lyon 2 - 2 Barcelona: Review and Highlights (Group Winners, biotches! edition)

By: Isaiah | November 29th, 2007

Before we truly get going, I think it’s only fair that I admit that I did not get to see this game. Obviously this detracts from my abilities to discuss the game in-depth, but I’ll do my best with the information at hand. I followed the game from work on Marca’s gametracker-esque deal, fully aware that it was a biased version of events. What’s awkwards about that is Marca is, generally speaking, the mouthpiece for all things Real Madrid and is thus generally quite anti-Barcelona. But I guess when it comes to international competitions, being Spanish takes precedence over being merengue. Fools. After all, I cheered for Bremen…

Regardless, Barcelona is through as group winners! Woohoo! Take that, group of death! Rangers did Lyon a huge favor by losing to Stuttgart 3-2 in Germany, which means that if Lyon wins at Ibrox in the last group game, they advance. A draw or a Rangers win means the Gers go through. Stuttgart has no chance to do anything cause they’re gone. They could steal some points from Barcelona, who I don’t expect to put up much of a fight on Dec 12.

The surprise of the match was the starting lineup for Barcelona, which consisted of:

Valdez, Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Inesta, Messi, Bojan

I’ve gone ahead and highlighted the surprising part, just in case you missed it. It’s not that I think Gudjohnsen is particularly bad, but rather that the bench contained one Ronaldinho, who eventually subbed on for Guddie. The only reason I can think of to start Gudjohnsen ahead of Ronnie is that you are playing for the draw that was achieved, rather than going for the throat. While Iniesta is a capable forward (and he showed off his counterattacking skills, scoring the first goal in the 3rd minute), I would prefer to see Ronaldinho up there, with Iniesta in a midfield role rather than Guddie. Still, the change paid immediate dividends and it’s hard to argue with success. Guddie should have made it at least 3-1, but instead fluffed a few chances (with a good save from Vercoutre on one), chances I don’t think Ronnie would have missed. Whether or not he would have been in that situation is a different question altogether.† There is little to no mention in most reports of what Marca mentioned in their play-by-play: That Lio Messi was brought down in the box and no penalty was given…at least not the first time. Some would have it that Abidal’s foul on Keita wasn’t a foul, but let’s just admit it: it was. It was a foul. Not much of one, but one nonetheless. But for Vecoutre’s stunning save of Toure’s monster drive and his good saves against Guddie and Messi, the game would have been a wash for Lyon, really. They were saved by a good performance by their keeper, which is okay. If that’s what it takes to draw against Barcelona, so be it because we’ll win 9 times out of 10. Valdes was solid in the back, from the replays, but that’s to be expected now. He’s hard to beat on those snapshots because of his positioning.

The Lyon kids over in Inara’s world seem somewhat displeased that they drew with Barca, despite the fact that Barca were, according to most reports I’ve read, the better team. Guddie blew a couple of chances in front of goal that would have sealed the deal, I won’t complain about the 2-2 draw, just the manner in which was earned (see above paragraph). Feel free to check out what Inara has to say about the goings on at the Gerland. Her review is good as always, if also a tad biased, as is to be expected (and totally okay, too). It’s not antagonistically biased. Just solid. And it has lots of pretty pictures. I should mention here that Juninho was apparently really good and his penalty was just cold. Vladimir Putin cold. Well, okay, maybe not quite 9th circle of hell frozen (please don’t kill me, Mr. Putin), but you know, cold. Like Messi’s penalty. His free-kick was just some nonsense that shouldn’t have gone in, but it did. And if you feel like checking it out, Fred was offside anyway. So that’s my complaint. (Keita was well into the box on Juninho’s penalty, but I don’t doubt that he would have put away the second one as well so that’s a useless point…)

The thing is, drawing with Barcelona is good. I don’t care who you are. And in case you were wondering, I think drawing at the Gerland is more than I hoped for and definitely really awesome. No matter who you are. Our 3-0 win against Lyon at the Camp Nou was just amazing because no one saw it coming. 3-0 and 2-2 against Lyon? I’ll accept that any day of the week! 0-0 and 2-0 against Rangers? Nice, but could have been better in the away match. 0-2 against Stuttgart is pretty great too. So really, all-in-all, a fantastic group stage, with one game to go (I expect players like Bojan and Gio to go the distance against Stuttgart and a couple of the Barca B players to get some European run outs; maybe Victor Vasquez and Marc Crosas; also, it’s the perfect place to reintroduce Edmilson, assuming he was on the CL roster, which I actually don’t know and Eto’o as well.)

So, unfortunately, that’s all I have to say about that game. Maybe I should mention that I’m rooting for Lyon against Rangers, if only because I dislike “anti-football”…

†To his credit, Gudjohnsen has said all the right things to the press lately, including this morning’s interview that I read in El Mundo Deportivo in which he said the team had learned to dedicate itself to the games more. That’s a relief, of course, but only if it’s true. They certainly have looked more with it over the last couple of games and perhaps for once the “FIFA virus” has affected them well. Remains to be seen this weekend, another away fixture, if only across town at Espanyol’s Montjuic.

Note the use of “Barceloner” throughout…