LYON FOR UEFA?

October 23, 2008

Predicting football results can often be tricky, stating who could win a certain
tournament may be easier but still could make you look an idiot in front of your
mates. Many football fans across the globe would have put bets on teams like
Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid or Inter Milan winning the Champions League,
you could add to this list the likes of Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and
Juventus. Despite heavy investment from overseas for Manchester City, it’s difficult
to see beyond Sevilla and AC Milan in the UEFA Cup. But what stands out the most
from this list of teams? There are no French teams in the mix.

The only team from across the channel to triumph in Europe were Marseille in 1993
when they beat AC Milan in the Champions League final but unfortunately, that will
be remembered for all the wrong reasons. For Marseille to win Ligue 1 they had to
beat ASOA Valence-Clime; however, Marseille’s President Bernard Tapie bribed their
opponents to lose the match so that OM could concentrate on the Milan tie. Soon
afterwards, these allegations came to life and Marseille were stripped of their
French title and relegated to the country’s second division. Despite this, they kept
their Champions League trophy as the match in question did not take place in that
competition.

We are half way through the group stages of the Champions League and already it
seems that Lyon are the best placed French club to progress to the knockout stages.
What will happen next? They will draw one of the big teams and narrowly miss out by
a goal or two, last year’s tie with Manchester United demonstrates this. But would
finishing third in their group be a catastrophe for Lyon? They would be in the UEFA
Cup and could possibly be considered joint favourites along with Sevilla and AC
Milan for the title.

Despite showing their character to come from behind to beat Steaua Bucharest on
Tuesday night, I’m sure that many supporters of Lyon will feel that once in the
knockout stages then the inevitable will happen. With the English so dominant in
recent seasons, Jose Mourinho at Inter and a 100% winning record for Barcelona, then
Lyon’s European journey could come to a sudden expected halt by mid-March. But what
about the UEFA Cup? Maybe a poor performance in the Champions League will spur Lyon
onto excellence in Europe’s second-tier competition.

Oliver Miller

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.