OM-LYON

Sunday 21 March 2010 at 21h00 - Stade Vélodrome

Ligue 1 - Week 29

Referee: Freddy Fautrel

Canal+

Football, just like the comments and judgments that go with it change quickly. Very quickly even and that is as old as sport itself. After sparkling for a long period of time, OM’s run has turned chaotic today, apparently. The price to pay for an elimination – it has to be said, frustrating – against Benfica on Thursday with the heavy tribute in terms of injuries (Cheyrou, Abriel and Koné). With OM becoming an injured beast.
But, what works in one sense obviously works in the other as well. The busy Spring agenda offers them, just three days later, a great opportunity to change the situation, with the match against Lyon at the Vélodrome in the L1.
A direct opponent at the top of the table (one point separates them), the former masters of the league have also had a tricky season. Announced dead and buried at the end of 2009, the “Gones” are back in fashion. This is down to an almost perfect run in 2010 (their last defeat in the L1 dates back to the 23rd of December) and to the prestigious scalp of Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo that they took in the Champions League, their first great result in the competition.
But, from that can they become once again the OL that dominated for 7 years? Not yet, but to be a "competitive team that can defeat any opponent" as Didier Deschamps confided in us recently. That is a certainty.
So at the moment they are rebalancing values, the OM coach announces that "the elimination has not changed anything, because not everything was perfect before". Two of the biggest sides in the L1 are up against each other this week-end, just like Bordeaux and Lille at Chaban-Delmas – and everyone wants to advance but hidden.

EVERYONE HAS THEIR FAVOURITE

An exercise that the OL president Jean-Michel Aulas masters perfectly. "OM are ultra-favourites" he stated at the start of the week, joined by his coach who said that he fears "the capacity of reaction" of OM. Nothing new from Lyon there.
A little like a judoka, Didier Deschamps has decided to use the strength of his opponent. More down to earth: "I’m not going to get carried away, we have a difficult opponent arriving on Sunday. They are quarter-finalists in the Champions League and have had a full week to prepare for the match. The playing field is not level, but we are at home and this match is very important to us".
But after the pre-match games comes the reality of the field. If both sides are missing players, the two teams often serve up a great spectacle when facing each other. The crazy scoreline from the first match between the two this season (5-5) is the most extravagant example. Announced full, the Vélodrome which was hurt on Thursday is not asking for so much but will go nuts if OM get back to winning ways against OL.
So if, as the coach pointed out, "there are still 30 points to be handed out before the end of the season" and the match will not be decisive, a win on Sunday would have interesting virtues: it would wipe away the affront of last season, when OL opened up the road for Bordeaux to win the title by winning at the Vélodrome at the end of May (1-3) and it would move away a direct opponent in the standings. And, speaking of Bordeaux, it would put the team back on the right track before a certain match at the Stade de France in less than a week’s time.