Lyon insist they will not be lulled into a false sense of security ahead of their crucial Champions League clash with Liverpool.
The English giants are staring at a premature exit after Lyon's 2-1 victory at Anfield a fortnight ago left them with two defeats from three in Group E.
Rafa Benitez's men were reduced to nine as they suffered a 3-1 defeat at Fulham on Saturday - their fifth loss in 11 Premier League games - and have a host of injury problems for the trip to France. Click to continue reading...

If English giants and 2005 winners Liverpool lose to Lyon in France on Wednesday night their Champions League dreams could be all but over.� Should Fiorentina beat Hungarian outfit Debrecen (a very likely occurrence) Liverpool will be six points adrift with just two games left.

It makes for grim reading for the Anfield faithful, with their Premier League title hopes in tatters the Champions League represents a great chance for them to pick up some silverware and an exit in the group stages is virtually unthinkable.

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

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< 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?

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There's an unstoppable groin-pocalypse going on at Lyon right now and no one is immune to its devastation. From Reuters:

Olympique Lyon have been hit by a series of groin injuries with keeper Hugo Lloris, defenders Jean-Alain Boumsong, Aly Cissokho, Mathieu Bodmer, Cleber Anderson, Cris, midfielders Cesar Delgado, Jeremy Toulalan, Kim Kallstrom and striker Lisandro Lopez all suffering from the same problem before their trip to arch-rivals St Etienne on Saturday.

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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?

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Jogaram em Solna, na Suécia, no estádio Rasunda, para um público de 25.342 pessoas, as seleções da Suécia (41º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção da Albânia (97º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
05-11-1988 - Albânia 1x2 Suécia (Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo)
08-10-1989 - Suécia 3x1 Albânia (Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo)
18-02-2004 - Albânia 2x1 Suécia (Amistoso)
06-09-2008 - Albânia 0x0 Suécia (Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo)
O quarteto de arbitragem desse jogo, foi assim definido:
Árbitro: Nikolai IVANOV-RUS
Primeiro Assistente: Nikloay GLOUBEV-RUS
Segundo Assistente: Viatcheslav SMENOV-RUS
Quarto Árbitro: Alexey NIKOLAEV-RUS
Aos 6 minutos do primeiro tempo, o camisa 3, Olof MELLBERG, abriu o placar para a Suécia. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool have plenty of work to do to qualify for the Champions League knockout phase after they lost 2-1 at home to Group E leaders Lyon.
Yossi Benayoun put the hosts ahead in the 41st minute only for substitute Maxime Gonalans to head home a corner 18 minutes from the end and Cesar Delgado snatch the winner in added time. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool face a tricky Champions League tie at Anfield against French giants Olympique Lyonnais. Fernando Torres is the major absence for Rafa Benitez's side, but captain Steven Gerrard makes a return to the squad.

Liverpool

Team News:

• Steven Gerrard recovers in time for the match and is expected to start for Rafa's side.

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The first of two must win matches in a week for Benitez.

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Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is fit to play against Lyon in Tuesday's Champions League Group E clash but striker Fernando Torres misses out.

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Day after tomorrow, the players kick off their fourth Peace Cup campaign (for some odd reason, the event organizers really like Lyon). For those of you unfamiliar with the tournament, it takes place every two years and is one of the six pre-season friendly tournaments going on this summer. The last three Peace Cups took place in South Korea - Lyon were runners-up in 2003 and 2005, and they were winners in 2007.

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OL Gets Serious About The Attack!

In:

Lisandro Lopez: Lyon finally got their man. JMA's first signing of the summer cost OL 24 mill plus performance bonuses. Lisandro is supposed to be in Lyon Friday for his physical.

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Five veteren players who might be on the way out this summer.

Lyon reached a turning point in this season in that there was an influx of youth during their summer mercato which, coupled with their aging core, signaled that the rebuilding of the squad was underway; whether intentional or not, something had to give.

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After a pretty active start to the week, the transfer news and rumors have subsided quite a bit over the last couple of days.

However, we've got a solid compilation of transfer news and rumors from England and Italy to tide you over until tomorrow.

England

Trezeguet Garnering English Interest

David Trezeguet could be set to leave Juventus this summer, and according to his father/agent, is receiving interest from ‘everyone' in England, along with Lyon and Barcelona.

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Facing a home side bent on revenge for a 3-0 loss earlier this season, Carlos Bocanegra marched into Lyon's Stade Gerland tonight and took a point from the league leaders.
Rennes came out with a good measure of confidence, trading scoring chances with Lyon from the beginning . In the 12th minute, Bocanegra appeared to have given Rennes an early lead when , displaying an NBA-quality vertical jump, he out-jumped the keeper to put away corner for an apparent goal. Click to continue reading...

These 3-0 losses are starting to turn into a yearly ritual. A humiliating one.

The game was so bad that Lyon's official website posted a highlight video that was only three minutes long - usually they are around twenty minutes. Watching it, I realized why. Apart from Mickael Pagis's three goals, not much else happened.

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According to L'Equipe, this is Lyon's best league start to a season since 2001/2002. Unbeaten in all their games, with five wins and a draw, they are already four points ahead of second placed Marseille. And despite having a defense that would make even the bravest of people whimper with fear, Lyon conceded only two goals so far, giving them the best defense in the league.

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In lieu of a proper match review, I present you with this. Match highlights and photos at the end of the post.

1. When picking Brazilians, it's Ederson you want. Leave Fred behind with the rest of the garbage.

I don't mean to come off as a Fred hater, but did he accomplish ANYTHING in today's match - besides the countless times he squandered easy shots on goal?

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As everyone's probably already heard, Fabio Grosso went down in the 18th min of Italy's 2-1 win over Cyprus. Fabio left the game with an injury to his flank. The diagnosis is two fractured ribs. It's believed he will be out of the Lyon line-up for at least one month. That amounts to Grosso missing at least (6) matches.

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Several players have been called up for international action next week. For many countries, this is the last opportunity to get things sorted before World Cup qualifiers start this fall.

France (vs. Sweden - 08/20/08): Hugo Lloris, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Jeremy Toulalan, Sidney Govou, Karim Benzema

Sweden (vs.

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Although we've all been waiting for the eventual signing of The Rock, John Mensah -which should happen today, Monday- there are other smaller happenings in the Mercato. I apologize for the shortness of the piece, but transfer news is scant lately. I thought I'd throw in some tiny morcels of info to keep the stomach growling to a minimum for those of us who are genuine transfer news junkies, and for those of us who don't read French.

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Lyon had their first summer friendly this afternoon against Nimes in Albertville. Goals were scored by Juninho (10), Yannis Tafer (40), and Anthony Mounier (63). This was Claude Puel's first match in charge, and for many of the players, their first match in an OL jersey.

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Nothing major to report on the transfer front. Most of the info from Inara's last transfer post is still up to date. Here's the latest:

OUT:

Gregory Coupet: Greg's transfer to Atletico Madrid has been finalized.

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The latest news from this week...Due to the amount of material covered, I didn't post links to the original sources like I normally do, but if you want them, let me know.

OUTGOING:

FRED: Is it just me, or does Fred spend an inordinate amount of time making life difficult for the rest of us?

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I've totally been avoiding writing about this because part of me still believes that it's only a nightmare...But man, out of the eleven OL players in Euro 2008, only one will be showing his face in the quarterfinals.

I have nine other identical pictures just like this.

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These two troublemakers fought in practice on Wednesday.
Forward Markus Rosenberg (right) took exception to a hard tackle by midfielder Kim Kallstrom and the two had to be separated.
But don't sweat this too much Sweden fans, neither of these guys are starters. Keep the bench warm suckers! Click to continue reading...

...Just busy.

For the rest of the month, I'll mostly be over at the France World Cup Blog or on ESPN Soccernet. But I will have a post up tomorrow about the progress of our international players at Euro 2008. There isn't anything to report on the transfer front, but don't worry, I'm still on the lookout for interesting news.

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This morning, Lyon finally clinched the signature of Miralem Pjanic, who is the hottest talent in France not born in 1987. Lyon have been negotiating with Metz for weeks, but to so many clubs interested, many with late bids, the deal took quite a long time in being crafted.

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March is closing out and so does a crazy month of soccer, but all that's really grabbed the headlines is drama. But before we get to the drama, take a look at former FC Dallas keeper Shaka Hislop's new blog with the Guardian. Hislop calls the Houston Dynamo the favorites for the upcoming 2008 MLS Season. Click to continue reading...

I'm not sure what to take from this match. Sweden was clearly the superior squad from the start and it seemed only a matter of time before they were going to score, but the US deserves credit, they were scrappy and didn't let Zlatan & company impose their will upon them.
One of the things I picked up early was how the Swedes seemed exposed on their left flank and was disappointed that the US didn't attack that side more often. Click to continue reading...