The UEFA Champions League
European Union
The best teams from the European Competitions will try to become the best of Europe in this Champions League (CL). Mostly the winners of the big leagues and several 2nd/3rd ranked teams in their league are taking part in this competition. Who will be the best of Europe this season? Watch this and you will know!
Debrecen vs Olympique Lyon Match scheduled:
Date: 29-09-2009
Time: 20:45 until 22:45
lympique Lyonnais dominated the top French level,
Ligue 1, in the early years of the
21st century. After their second-place finish in
2001, Lyon won seven consecutive Ligue 1 titles, becoming the first club in
French history to do so. However, despite the domestic success, Lyon's European ambitions were never realized only reaching as far as the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Jacques Santini was appointed in 2000 after leaving his position at FC Sochaux-Montbéliard. Santini quickly restored the team and in 2001, Lyon had won Coupe de la Ligue (French League Cup), which surprisingly was the club's first major silverware since the 1973 Coupe de France win. He also steered the side to a 2nd place finish, which, as a result, guaranteed the club UEFA Champions League qualification. Despite these successes, Santini was still not popular with the fans, who did not approve of his defensive approach to the game.
In 2002, Santini went one better and guided Lyon to their first ever Ligue 1 title, after a win, on the last day of the season, over 2nd place finisher RC Lens. It still didn't convince the majority of Lyon supporters that he was the right man, after suffering an early knockout in the Champions League, and a fortnight after the win, Santini announced his resignation with Lyon. He opted for the France national football team.
The man who was responsible for delivering three consecutive league titles with Lyon was former Rennes manager Paul Le Guen. Le Guen was highly noted for grooming players such as El Hadji Diouf during his time at Rennes, but he was feared as another failure, according to much of the press.
He undoubtedly proved them wrong, and Lyon had improved in Ligue 1 and in the Champions League. Despite finishing third in the Champions League group stages, Lyon were only knocked out due to the goal against rule, which had meant that Lyon were placed in the UEFA Cup. Lyon lost to Turkish side, Denizlispor after drawing at home. Le Guen won the league once more by one point.
Le Guen's second season saw Lyon win their third title and second during his reign. Lyon were also top of their group in the Champions League, despite the threat of previous winners, Bayern Munich. The team had beaten Real Sociedad in the round of 16, but their luck ran out against F.C. Porto, who ultimately won the competition.
The club had won the league for a fourth time by a majority margin, but were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the second straight season. It had looked like Lyon were going to cruise through the semi-finals, after trashing German opponents Werder Bremen 10–2 on aggregate. They were cruelly knocked out on penalties by Dutch club PSV and left Lyon fans waiting another year for a Champions League final.
A night after Lyon's league success, Le Guen resigned from his position as manager. The news surprised Lyon fans, who thought that Le Guen would sign a contract extension and commit himself to the club. He was offered a three-year extension, but decided to leave and be proud of his achievements.
Gérard Houllier was appointed as Lyon boss in 2005, after the resignation of Le Guen. He had inherited a worthy championship side, with the likes of Juninho, Sylvain Wiltord, Sidney Govou, Florent Malouda and Grégory Coupet. He placed Juninho as captain and brought Portuguese international Tiago to the club from Chelsea, in a part-exchange deal for Michael Essien.
In his first full season, he had guided the side to a fifth consecutive league title but failed to make an impact in the Champions League, after crashing out to AC Milan at the San Siro. It was their third consecutive quarter-final appearance in the Champions League. Lyon won the title after Lille's win against Bordeaux.
Houllier was successful in signing French U-21 international Jérémy Toulalan from Nantes, as well as Swedish play-maker Kim Källström from Rennes. Gérard, however, lost the services of Mali's Mahamadou Diarra, who had agreed a five-year contract with Real Madrid worth up to €25 million. In order to replace Diarra, Gérard signed another French international, Alou Diarra, from RC Lens.
Yet despite a triumphant season debut in which Lyon thrashed championship challengers Olympique de Marseille 1–4 and Lens 0–4, scoring 50 points in the first part of the season alone, Lyon didn't recover from the winter break and lost or drew nearly all the matches in January, including the Coupe de France knockout against Marseille. They managed to regain confidence by beating rivals AS Saint-Étienne 1–3, but were not in their autumn form and were decisively beaten by A.S. Roma at Gerland, thus being eliminated from the Champions League.
During the 2007–08 season, Lyon changed their coach, bringing in former Portsmouth boss Alain Perrin from Sochaux. They also recruited Italian World Cup winner Fabio Grosso, as well as Mathieu Bodmer and Abdul Kader Keïta from Lille. The season started badly, with defeats against Toulouse and Lorient, as well as important players such as Grégory Coupet and Cris being injured. The UEFA Champion's league campaign started in disaster, with the club suffering two humiliating defeats against FC Barcelona (3–0) and Rangers (0–3). These difficulties were due to a lack of defensive discipline and because of Perrin's 4-4-2 system, a formation the players weren't used to.
However, the team managed to maintain itself in first place, thanks to fantastic performances by Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa. Lyon qualified for the next stage in the Champion's League thanks to wins against VfB Stuttgart (0–2 and 4–2) and Rangers, at Ibrox Park (0–3).
The season was marked by some erratic performances, and by a much less marked domination; Bordeaux emerged as serious contenders for the title. The league was eventually decided on the final day. In Lyon's match against Auxerre, Benzema scored a goal (his twentieth that season in Ligue 1), a mere 24 seconds after kick-off, followed by goals from Fred and Källstrom, securing the League for Lyon. Had Lyon lost, Bordeaux would have been crowned champions as they also won on the final day.
Olympique Lyonnais also managed to win the Coupe de France for the first time in more than 30 years with a 1-0 (goal scored by Sidney Govou) win in extra-time against Paris Saint-Germain. This victory assured the club their first ever double.
