Tuesday, February 14, 2012

UEFA Champions League

Last 16, 1st leg

 Lyon - Apoel FC

>> Live scoring from 20:45 CET

All concerned at Lyon would have been well pleased when OL - who scraped through to the last 16 by the narrowest of margins and in the most dramatic of circumstances with their 7-1 win against Dinamo Zagreb - were drawn against Cypriot champions Apoel FC for this first knockout round of the season.

Avoiding the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan and Bayern Munich was nothing to be sneezed at, but as the match draws near, Lyon's failure to win in their last two league outings - and a recent trend of conceding goals - is making Group G-winners Apoel loom larger on the horizon.

Garde: 'Learnt our lessons'

"What happened against Caen was unexpected," said Garde of the surprise 2-1 home defeat at the weekend, when OL's famous capacity to come storming home at the end of matches came a little too late. "But I think we've learnt our lessons from that loss. The Champions League is a different competition, but I think that Apoel could play a very similar style to what we saw against Caen. They sit back in defence and wait, then hit on the counter. We'll need to find the chink in their armour." 

With the exception of Croatia defender Dejan Lovren, who is out with an Achilles tendon injury, Garde has a full-strength squad to choose from, with Bakary Koné to partner fit-again captain Cris in the centre of defence.

Patching the leak

But with OL having conceded a worrying seven goals in their last four matches in all competitions - coming into a match where away goals will count double - Garde will be demanding a rigorous performance defensively, and not just from his stoppers.

"We need to be very vigilant," warned Garde. "We need to lift our game. Our results of late have depended very much on whether we look to win back the ball as a team or not. It's everyone's job, all the way through the match. We've had some failings in this department recently that we absolutely have to correct against Apoel, because European football is incredibly unforgiving of defensive errors."

Probable teams:

Lyon: Lloris; Réveillère, B. Koné, Cris (c), A. Cissokho; Briand, Gonalons, Källström, Bastos (or Lacazette); Lisandro, B. Gomis

Apoel: Chiotis; Poursaitides, Paulo Jorge, Kaka, Boaventura; Nuno Morais, Helio Pinto; Charalambidis (c), Marcinho (or Helder Sousa), Trickowski; Ailton

>> Champions League last-16 fixtures/results