Goals: Lyon (Pjanic 3, Govou 14, Lisandro 80, Lisandro pen 83, Bastos 90); Marseille (Diawara 11, Cheyrou 43, Kone 47, Brandao 79, Toulalan og 92)
Sanctions: Lyon (Makoun 20, Cris 54, Lisandro 86); Marseille (Niang 74, Diawara 87)

No words can adequately describe what will for sure end up being the match of the year.

November 8, 2009
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
3:00 EST (21:00CET, 20:00GMT)

Sunday evening it's back to work. But hopefully, it's not one of those usual Monday morning, sloping, sluggish, I need a liter of coffee to get through the day, back to works, because aside from the heart wrenching matches against Cesspool in the CL, Lyon have been afflicted with a general malaise probably since week eight in the PSG match, and need this victory to put some pep back in their step.

(click to enlarge)

For those of you are brave enough to describe the above picture with words, it's caption time!

Bonus points if you can find Lisandro in this picture.

Don't be surprised if you walk into your favorite footie pub tomorrow and see fans of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Everton wearing OL kits. The match-up between Lyon and Liverpool, while important for Lyon in terms of pride and security, is absolutely crucial for Liverpool. Unfortunately for Rafa's Bunch of (un)Merry Men, they are nearly paralyzed with injuries and on the verge of elimination from the Champions League.

Just some random odds and ends for you to read as you bide your time waiting for Lyon's Champions League clash with Liverpool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

< Sid's Serious Captain-y Face.

If you're wondering why the captain's armband showed up on Cris last Saturday, despite Sidney Govou also being on the pitch, it's because our dear (former?

OCTOBER 31, 2009
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, St. Etienne
4PM ET (21:00 CET, 20:00 GMT)

Saturday, OL make their descent into Le Chaudron and you can believe it will be hot- aka Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to kick-off the only derby that really matters.

Goals: Nice (Bagayoko 17, Cissokho o.g. 40, Hellebuyck 69, Remy 74), Lyon (Ederson 84).
Warnings: Nice (Coulibaly 5), Lyon (Cissokho 21, Gonalons 53, Reveillere 77)

The entire match condensed into a single photo.

OCTOBER 24, 2009
Stade Municipal Du Ray, Nice
1 PM ET (19:00 CET, 18:00 GMT)
After Tuesday's unbelievable victory at Anfield, we can only hope that the players have come back down to earth- because I'm still on cloud nine- and are ready to dispatch there next league obstacle and maintain their miniscule +1 goal differential lead over second place Montpellier?

Since so much has been said about yesterday's game, I'm not going to go too much into it. I just wanted to say how proud I am of my team. We've been waiting for this win for a long time. It might just be the group stages, but the biggest criticism of Lyon has been that they've been unable to defeat a big team away from home.

Pardon the super cheesy title, but after reading Miralem Pjanic's super inspiring interview this morning, I felt...well, super. Lyon are in first place in their CL group, Liverpool are in the unwelcome position of being in third, and both teams are coming off of weekend losses in their domestic leagues.

October 17, 2009
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
1 PM ET (19:00 CET, 18:00 GMT)

Well, after the short but much needed international break, Lyon head back to office. The break gave us some much needed time for the laundry list of players out due to injury, to continue their convalescences.

There might be room for a third blogger here on Lyon Offside. Emphasis on the might.

Inara and John aren't going anywhere, but they have asked me to find a third writer to help them out, keep the posts coming, and generally be part of a deadly OL blogging trident.

However, Because Inara and John have set such excellent standards here, I'm setting the bar very very high.

With World Cup qualifiers about to take place, there isn't too much happening at club level. But there are a few articles and updates that caught my eye.

The biggest news is the medical update on Bafetimbi Gomis. Two days ago at Guingamp, Gomis collapsed during practice with the France squad.

Source: Lyon's official website (I'm serious).

We're only 24 hours away from a much needed international break. With Lyon's upcoming fixture schedule, the boys will need every opportunity to rest up. Of course, that isn't the case for our international players, but at least the other half of the squad can recuperate from half-healed injuries (I'm looking at you, Lisandro).