© EuroFootball.com
On Tuesday evening, the leaders of the last country's league and the leaders in the Dutch championship Eindhoven club will clash in a duel of two possible Champions League season surprises in France.
Although both teams are among the weakest in the prestigious European league, they draw inspiration from the previous season, which was recorded in football history as one of the most shocking, as probably no one could predict in advance that its final would feature the two teams. Now one of the teams meeting today will advance to the semi-finals, so the possibility that surprises could happen again this year cannot be ruled out.
The coach of the French champions "Lyon" Paul Le Guen believes that in the fight for a place in the Champions League semi-finals, his current team is better prepared than last year when the French team lost to the "Porto" club in the quarter-finals.
The Lyon team reached the quarter-finals for the first time 12 months ago, but then lost to the future champions. However, before Tuesday's Lyon match with Eindhoven's "PSV", Le Guen is convinced that a similar scenario can be avoided: "We utilized last year's experience and learned lessons from the Porto match."
The former French national team player says that the main lesson he learned is that "Lyon" needs higher quality in key positions: "We were not very far from the level of 'Porto', but in some areas of the field we lacked skill. We corrected all that last summer by acquiring two or three players who allowed us to raise our game to a higher level. This season we played more confidently."
The defense was particularly strengthened by the arrival of Cris and Eric Abidal, while Sylvain Wiltord's experience and skill helped score 27 goals for "Lyon" in eight Champions League matches - nine more than any other team.
Wiltord will return to the team after resting following a weekend match against , which "Lyon" won by a narrow margin and increased their lead over pursuers to 13 points. Le Guen will be able to select the full starting lineup, as Sidney Govou has recovered, and captain Claudio Cacapa recovered from a serious knee injury.
Meanwhile, "PSV" coach Guus Hiddink warned his players to expect tougher matches than those "PSV" had in the round of 16 against another French club "Monaco": "Lyon" has been the strongest team in France for some time now. They play better team football than "Monaco", and are tactically more disciplined. We will always need to take two steps forward."
As all players of the Eindhoven team are healthy, Hiddink also has no problems choosing the lineup, and he hopes that Phillip Cocu, Mark van Bommel, and Johann Vogel will be able to control the midfield: "Matches here can be won or lost. 'Lyon' has young but experienced players in the defensive line. Juninho has a lot of experience, Michael Essien is a great player, and Mahamadou Diarra works very hard. It will be a big battle."
Hiddink is likely to release only Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink into the "PSV" attacking line, but the former Dutch national team strategist insists that his team is not going to rely solely on defense: "Statistics show that your chances increase if you score away. We will not just try to stop the match and defend. That would not be the spirit of Dutch football or 'PSV'."
Predicted starting lineups:
Lyon (4-4-2): Coupet; Reveillere, Cris, Cacapa, Abidal; Juninho, Essien, Diarra, Malouda; Wiltord, Govou
PSV (4-5-1): Da Silva Gomes; Ooijer, Alex, Bouma, Young-Pyo Lee; Van Bommel, Vogel, Cocu, Ji-Sung Park, Farfan; Hesselink
