Lyon Hold Marseille In A Dire Stalemate

Often the most anticipated matches become the greatest disappointments. This was certainly the case this evening in the Stade Gerland as a niggly match between Olympique Lyonnais and Olympique de Marseille finished without a goal, or even a chance, to speak of.

Neither side was keen to over-commit in the early stages of the match, probing tentatively down the flanks. Although Karim Benzema would send a shot over the bar via an unnoticed deflection from a visiting defender, it would be Marseille that would enjoy the better of the opening stages.

Rather than the high-tempo pressing game that les Gones employed so effectively against Bayern Munich, Claude Puel’s men retreated into their own half and set themselves in an organised fashion, happy to invite Marseille’s fleet-footed forwards onto them. Aside from a Taye Taiwo centre, which fizzed across the box, Lyon were unflustered by the waves of light blue attackers.

When this tide was stemmed, chances continued to be rare. A powerful burst by Jérémy Toulalan might have brought more had Benzema anticipated his team-mate’s run while the best chance of the opening 35 minutes would fall to Mathieu Valbuena. A corner was badly dealt with by the home side, allowing the wingman a free pop at goal at the far post. From a difficult angle, he could only shoot straight at Hugo Lloris.

Lyon, who had flickered into action sporadically, then had their best moments of a cagey first half, in which both sides had been eager to crowd out an asphyxiate their opponents. Benzema latched onto a Zenden error and nearly succeeded in playing a deft pass to Sidney Govou, which was cut out by Taiwo.

Les Gones were then nearly touched in front by Jean-Alain Boumsong, who could not quite get onto the end of Juninho’s dangerous centre. With the ball missed by Boumsong, Steve Mandanda had to dive sharply to his right to hold the goalbound ball.

Three minutes before half time, Govou latched onto a superbly conceived pass from Ederson to send a snapshot narrowly wide of Mandanda’s goal, with the goalkeeper far from certain the ball had travelled wide.  

If the first half had been blighted by frequent free-kicks, the second would start in a similar manner. As in open play, the delivery of the deadballs often left much to be desired, with Bolo Zenden a particular culprit early in the second period.  Juninho did have one angled free-kick well fielded by Mandanda low at his near post but there remained precious little reason for either goalkeeper to be on the field.

A change in personnel was meant to give les Gones more impetus and did give early cause for optimism as Benzema, shifted to the left flank, curled a shot into Mandanda’s side netting.

The fractious nature of the game was making it really difficult for any player to make a great impression. Hatem Ben Arfa, who was involved more than any other player, was sent crashing to the deck frequently by a home defence on a number of occasions yet Marseille could not pounce on the opportunities he created.

Although neither goalkeeper had been stretched particularly, both got into the spirit of the game by making uncharacteristic. Lloris, who took over from Mandanda as French number one during their last international, contrived to slide over a through ball only to be bailed out by Cris. An equally catastrophic misjudgement from OM’s stopper at the other end of the pitch was not punished as there were no takers for Benzema’s cross with the away goal open.

Play did become a little more stretched in the final five minutes. Samassa’s attempted cross clipped the bar on its way out of play while Cesar Delgado had a shot desperately blocked at the other end of the field.

OLYMPIQUE LYONNAIS 0-0 OLYMPIQUE DE MARSEILLE

Lyon: Lloris; Mensah, Grosso, Boumsong, Cris; Kallstrom, Toulalan; Juninho (Makoun, 70’), Ederson (Fred, 70’), Govou (Delgado, 82’); Benzema

Yellow Cards: Toulalan 45’, Grosso 70’

Marseille: Mandanda; Bonnart, Taiwo, Hilton, Zubar; Cana, Ziani (Mbami 88’), Ben Arfa (Kaboré, 81), Valbuena (Samassa, 75’), Zenden; Koné

Yellow Cards: Zubar 21’, Ben Arfa 37’, Zenden 44’