match babblings: olympique lyon vs fc barcelona...
I promised sebastiona to keep her updated about the Lyon-Barça game, but I doubt she's going to check her mobile before the game is over, so I decided to attempt a play-by-play. Hope it's at least a little helpful, I don't really have much experience at this.
Starting line-ups:
Lyon: Lloris - Mensah, Cris, Boumsong, Grosso - Toulalan - Keita, Makoun, Juninho, Ederson - Benzema
Barcelona: Valdés - Alves, Piqué, Márquez, Puyol - Touré - Xavi, Busquets - Messi, Eto'o, Henry
1st Half:
1: Lyon's jerseys give me eye cancer. Seriously, how can people be allowed to wear blinding stuff like that?
3: Good chance by Henry after Xavi passed the ball to him, but Lyon's keeper caught it before Henry could reach it.
4. Foul against Xavi by Juninho. Xavi needs medical attention but can continue. Btw, it's amazing how much Xavi looks like Ted from Queer as Folk. O_O I guess I'll never be able to watch another football match with him without imagining dildos, porn websites and crystal meths. *facepalm*
6: Barça are pressing forward with good combinations, but Lyon's are defending well.
7: Free kick for Lyon on the left side of Barça's box after Touré (I think?) fouled some Lyon player. Juninho circles it right into the upper right corner of the goal, 1-0 for Lyon. Damn it. Valdés probably misjudged the direction of the shot, as everyone else did.
8: Nearly a second goal for Lyon, OMG. One of Barça's defenders accidentally passes the ball to Benzema, but under pressure from Valdés and Piqué (who diverts the ball), his shot goes wide by mere inches.
9: Ederson is rolling on the floor holding his nuts. Juninho steps up for another free kick, but this time it hits the wall. The rebound enters the box, Valdés' hand hits Benzema's head instead, and the chance is wasted. Barça's goal has been under incessant attack during the first 10 minutes, they hardly had any time to breathe. It's obvious that the early goal shocked them.
14: Dangerous foul from Fabio Grosso (GAH, I hate him!) against Dani Alves. Ouch. Fortunately, Dani doesn't seem to be injured. Messi's free kick lands right in the arms of Lyon's keeper.
14: Wow, Valdés took a risk there. It looked as if he was picking up the ball outside his box, but I might have seen that wrong.
14: Barça launch an attack, Eto'o catches a Xavi pass and overtakes Lyon's defense, but his shot hits the left post. The commentators discuss the possibility of an offside position.
16: I can hardly keep up here, so much is happening. The pace of the match is incredibly fast, both sides seem eager to take control of the match. However, Lyon manage to advance further than Barça, creating several chances while most of Barça's attacks are stopped by Lyon's defense.
23: Statistics say Barça are having 61% of ball possession, but that mostly comes from the fact that the defenders hardly ever find any midfielder to pass the ball to and therefore let the ball circulate amongst each other. Lyon's attacks are faster and vertical. The effort of both teams is obvious, it's a very tough, physical match, but there aren't too many fouls.
27: An accidental pass from Xavi to an opponent results in a free Benzema taking a shot on goal inside the box, but it hits the post.
25: First yellow card of the match for Toulalan after a rough foul against Busquets.
32: Yellow for Grosso (have I mentioned I hate this guy?) after sliding into Messi's legs from behind. All of Lyon's players are in the box, Messi and Dani Alves are circulating the ball around it until Grosso stops Messi with what seemed to be another foul to me (but wasn't penalised), and Lyon immediately launch an attack. Fortunately, a dangerous cross from Keita is caught by Valdés before it can reach the free Benzema.
34: Yellow for Dani Alves.
35: Random observation: I only noticed that Puyol was playing as fullback after I saw him doing a throw-in. I must admit I didn't have the time to look for a line-up before the match started. (Yeah, maybe I should have!)
36: Having difficulties with my stream. Apparently, Keita stepped on Eto'o's achilles ligament. Must try to find a better stream during half-time.
39: Nice example of one-touch football towards Lyon's goal, but the blindingly yellow defense holds firm.
40: Alves crosses the ball into the box, but Busquets' header is too high.
43: Eto'o is felled inside Lyon's box, flanked by two Lyon players, but the referee doesn't give a penalty. Not sure if he should have.
Half-time.
Wow, is that really the same team that Bayern played in the group stage? It's hard to believe. O_O I do remember those impossible jerseys, but I don't remember having seen Lyon play so well in this tournament before. (Okay, all I've seen were the two games against Bayern, but still.) I had hoped for Barça to give them a hard time, really, because Lyon do absolutely nothing for me, and also they have Fabio Grosso, who I hate with a passion (as mentioned above). Instead, I'm seeing a most exciting match where no team is granting the other any time to take a breath. The ball is circulating so fast that I can hardly breathe, myself, and I'm sure I missed 100 interesting/important scenes above or got some names wrong (maybe it would help if I knew those of Lyon's players in the first place *headdesk*), but I can only type so fast. Anyway. So far, both teams had their chances to score, but Lyon had the better ones, so they probably deserve the lead. They also seem totally comfortable with the high speed of the game. Let's see how long that lasts. If they keep playing as fast as this, they're bound to get tired rather soon, which might be an advantage for Barça.
*breathes deeply*
2nd Half:
50: Lyon remain within their own half now and wait for chances to counterattack. The ball circulates amongst Barça's players but doesn't really get anywhere useful. The team seems uninspired, and when Messi tries to break through Lyon's defense wall, nobody's helping him.
54: Juninho's free kick from a central position outside the box lands right in front of an undoubtedly grateful Valdés.
55: Are those commentators calling Puyol "Superman"? I think I just died from squee.
56: Finally a free kick for Barça after a foul against Busquets. Dani Alves' shot hits Grosso in the wall, who nearly deflects the ball into the goal, but keeper Lloris is there.
58: Yay, statistics. Apparently, Barça scored 71 goals in 25 games so far this season, and Lyon only scored 35 in 24 games. This does not reflect the game in any way, though. Maybe ESPN feel the need to make up for the game's current lack of exciting moments by giving us something to read.
61: Yellow card for Puyol after pushing Keita out of the way. The resulting free-kick by Juninho is cleared away by Márquez before Boumsong can reach it.
63. Oh, the referee is German! I knew he looked somewhat familiar. ;) Anyway, yellow card for Busquets for demanding a yellow for a Lyon player. Tsk tsk.
64: Ederson out, César Delgado in.
66: Gorgeous dribblings by Eto'o and Messi result in a corner for Barça, but Lloris parries Piqué's header from a short distance. The resulting corner from the other side FINALLY grants Barça the muchly deserved equaliser: Xavi's corner kick is headed forward by Márquez and then headed directly into the goal by Henry. 1-1.
70: It's Barça's game now. Lyon hardly ever manage to leave their own half of the pitch anymore, and when they do, it looks half-hearted and proves unsuccessful.
72: Eto'o crosses the ball into the box from the right side, but Cris clears it away before Henry can reach it. They seem a lot more confident now, encouraged by Lyon's players who seem to be mostly watching and aren't doing much to stop Barça in the midfield.
77: Busquets out, Seydou Keita in.
79: Juninho out, Kim Källström in.
81: Dani Alves is breathtaking. Wow.
82: Neither team seem to be willing to risk anything exceptional to score the winning goal, so there's not much happening. A draw would look very flattering for Lyon, who haven't done much for the game in the second half, but at least Barça would have the important away goal.
86: Chance for Lyon! Benzema breaks through Barça's defense and crosses from the left but the #24 misses the shot.
86: Messi makes a run towards Lyon's goal and is stopped very roughly by Cris, who is instantly carded for it.
88: Lyon's Keita out, Pjanić in.
88: Benzema's obviously favourite place to be: the offside. I lost count how often the ref had to whistle him back already.
90+1: Probably the last bit of action in the game: Corner for Lyon, some confusion in the box, but Valdés catches the ball safely.
90+2: Game over.
And what a game it was. Granted, there were some periods during the second half when nothing much was happening, but for most of the time, I got to see an exciting, sometimes even nerve-racking football match. Not that I can give the home side much credit for that, they mostly defended and looked out for chances to counter, but when they came out of their shell, they played fast and mostly accurately. Barça had some problems at finding their ideal pace at first and were unlucky to get that early goal, but all in all, they might not be as satisfied with the draw as Lyon probably are.
I wouldn't know who to name best player of this match, maybe Dani Alves, but Puyol was definitely the hardest man on the pitch tonight. ;) I want him like mad.
In other news, ManU drew 0-0 with Inter and have to play the second leg without the (possible) advantage of an away goal. Porto drew as well, but they scored two goals against Atlético and might sleep a bit more soundly before the match back at home.
Apparently, the only team to win anything tonight is Arsenal, who managed a 1-0 at home against AS Roma. Mexès fouled van Persie in the box, the fouled player scored with his penalty.
Now I'll go to bed and hope I won't have any nightmares about the match tomorrow.
Starting line-ups:
Lyon: Lloris - Mensah, Cris, Boumsong, Grosso - Toulalan - Keita, Makoun, Juninho, Ederson - Benzema
Barcelona: Valdés - Alves, Piqué, Márquez, Puyol - Touré - Xavi, Busquets - Messi, Eto'o, Henry
1st Half:
1: Lyon's jerseys give me eye cancer. Seriously, how can people be allowed to wear blinding stuff like that?
3: Good chance by Henry after Xavi passed the ball to him, but Lyon's keeper caught it before Henry could reach it.
4. Foul against Xavi by Juninho. Xavi needs medical attention but can continue. Btw, it's amazing how much Xavi looks like Ted from Queer as Folk. O_O I guess I'll never be able to watch another football match with him without imagining dildos, porn websites and crystal meths. *facepalm*
6: Barça are pressing forward with good combinations, but Lyon's are defending well.
7: Free kick for Lyon on the left side of Barça's box after Touré (I think?) fouled some Lyon player. Juninho circles it right into the upper right corner of the goal, 1-0 for Lyon. Damn it. Valdés probably misjudged the direction of the shot, as everyone else did.
8: Nearly a second goal for Lyon, OMG. One of Barça's defenders accidentally passes the ball to Benzema, but under pressure from Valdés and Piqué (who diverts the ball), his shot goes wide by mere inches.
9: Ederson is rolling on the floor holding his nuts. Juninho steps up for another free kick, but this time it hits the wall. The rebound enters the box, Valdés' hand hits Benzema's head instead, and the chance is wasted. Barça's goal has been under incessant attack during the first 10 minutes, they hardly had any time to breathe. It's obvious that the early goal shocked them.
14: Dangerous foul from Fabio Grosso (GAH, I hate him!) against Dani Alves. Ouch. Fortunately, Dani doesn't seem to be injured. Messi's free kick lands right in the arms of Lyon's keeper.
14: Wow, Valdés took a risk there. It looked as if he was picking up the ball outside his box, but I might have seen that wrong.
14: Barça launch an attack, Eto'o catches a Xavi pass and overtakes Lyon's defense, but his shot hits the left post. The commentators discuss the possibility of an offside position.
16: I can hardly keep up here, so much is happening. The pace of the match is incredibly fast, both sides seem eager to take control of the match. However, Lyon manage to advance further than Barça, creating several chances while most of Barça's attacks are stopped by Lyon's defense.
23: Statistics say Barça are having 61% of ball possession, but that mostly comes from the fact that the defenders hardly ever find any midfielder to pass the ball to and therefore let the ball circulate amongst each other. Lyon's attacks are faster and vertical. The effort of both teams is obvious, it's a very tough, physical match, but there aren't too many fouls.
27: An accidental pass from Xavi to an opponent results in a free Benzema taking a shot on goal inside the box, but it hits the post.
25: First yellow card of the match for Toulalan after a rough foul against Busquets.
32: Yellow for Grosso (have I mentioned I hate this guy?) after sliding into Messi's legs from behind. All of Lyon's players are in the box, Messi and Dani Alves are circulating the ball around it until Grosso stops Messi with what seemed to be another foul to me (but wasn't penalised), and Lyon immediately launch an attack. Fortunately, a dangerous cross from Keita is caught by Valdés before it can reach the free Benzema.
34: Yellow for Dani Alves.
35: Random observation: I only noticed that Puyol was playing as fullback after I saw him doing a throw-in. I must admit I didn't have the time to look for a line-up before the match started. (Yeah, maybe I should have!)
36: Having difficulties with my stream. Apparently, Keita stepped on Eto'o's achilles ligament. Must try to find a better stream during half-time.
39: Nice example of one-touch football towards Lyon's goal, but the blindingly yellow defense holds firm.
40: Alves crosses the ball into the box, but Busquets' header is too high.
43: Eto'o is felled inside Lyon's box, flanked by two Lyon players, but the referee doesn't give a penalty. Not sure if he should have.
Half-time.
Wow, is that really the same team that Bayern played in the group stage? It's hard to believe. O_O I do remember those impossible jerseys, but I don't remember having seen Lyon play so well in this tournament before. (Okay, all I've seen were the two games against Bayern, but still.) I had hoped for Barça to give them a hard time, really, because Lyon do absolutely nothing for me, and also they have Fabio Grosso, who I hate with a passion (as mentioned above). Instead, I'm seeing a most exciting match where no team is granting the other any time to take a breath. The ball is circulating so fast that I can hardly breathe, myself, and I'm sure I missed 100 interesting/important scenes above or got some names wrong (maybe it would help if I knew those of Lyon's players in the first place *headdesk*), but I can only type so fast. Anyway. So far, both teams had their chances to score, but Lyon had the better ones, so they probably deserve the lead. They also seem totally comfortable with the high speed of the game. Let's see how long that lasts. If they keep playing as fast as this, they're bound to get tired rather soon, which might be an advantage for Barça.
*breathes deeply*
2nd Half:
50: Lyon remain within their own half now and wait for chances to counterattack. The ball circulates amongst Barça's players but doesn't really get anywhere useful. The team seems uninspired, and when Messi tries to break through Lyon's defense wall, nobody's helping him.
54: Juninho's free kick from a central position outside the box lands right in front of an undoubtedly grateful Valdés.
55: Are those commentators calling Puyol "Superman"? I think I just died from squee.
56: Finally a free kick for Barça after a foul against Busquets. Dani Alves' shot hits Grosso in the wall, who nearly deflects the ball into the goal, but keeper Lloris is there.
58: Yay, statistics. Apparently, Barça scored 71 goals in 25 games so far this season, and Lyon only scored 35 in 24 games. This does not reflect the game in any way, though. Maybe ESPN feel the need to make up for the game's current lack of exciting moments by giving us something to read.
61: Yellow card for Puyol after pushing Keita out of the way. The resulting free-kick by Juninho is cleared away by Márquez before Boumsong can reach it.
63. Oh, the referee is German! I knew he looked somewhat familiar. ;) Anyway, yellow card for Busquets for demanding a yellow for a Lyon player. Tsk tsk.
64: Ederson out, César Delgado in.
66: Gorgeous dribblings by Eto'o and Messi result in a corner for Barça, but Lloris parries Piqué's header from a short distance. The resulting corner from the other side FINALLY grants Barça the muchly deserved equaliser: Xavi's corner kick is headed forward by Márquez and then headed directly into the goal by Henry. 1-1.
70: It's Barça's game now. Lyon hardly ever manage to leave their own half of the pitch anymore, and when they do, it looks half-hearted and proves unsuccessful.
72: Eto'o crosses the ball into the box from the right side, but Cris clears it away before Henry can reach it. They seem a lot more confident now, encouraged by Lyon's players who seem to be mostly watching and aren't doing much to stop Barça in the midfield.
77: Busquets out, Seydou Keita in.
79: Juninho out, Kim Källström in.
81: Dani Alves is breathtaking. Wow.
82: Neither team seem to be willing to risk anything exceptional to score the winning goal, so there's not much happening. A draw would look very flattering for Lyon, who haven't done much for the game in the second half, but at least Barça would have the important away goal.
86: Chance for Lyon! Benzema breaks through Barça's defense and crosses from the left but the #24 misses the shot.
86: Messi makes a run towards Lyon's goal and is stopped very roughly by Cris, who is instantly carded for it.
88: Lyon's Keita out, Pjanić in.
88: Benzema's obviously favourite place to be: the offside. I lost count how often the ref had to whistle him back already.
90+1: Probably the last bit of action in the game: Corner for Lyon, some confusion in the box, but Valdés catches the ball safely.
90+2: Game over.
And what a game it was. Granted, there were some periods during the second half when nothing much was happening, but for most of the time, I got to see an exciting, sometimes even nerve-racking football match. Not that I can give the home side much credit for that, they mostly defended and looked out for chances to counter, but when they came out of their shell, they played fast and mostly accurately. Barça had some problems at finding their ideal pace at first and were unlucky to get that early goal, but all in all, they might not be as satisfied with the draw as Lyon probably are.
I wouldn't know who to name best player of this match, maybe Dani Alves, but Puyol was definitely the hardest man on the pitch tonight. ;) I want him like mad.
In other news, ManU drew 0-0 with Inter and have to play the second leg without the (possible) advantage of an away goal. Porto drew as well, but they scored two goals against Atlético and might sleep a bit more soundly before the match back at home.
Apparently, the only team to win anything tonight is Arsenal, who managed a 1-0 at home against AS Roma. Mexès fouled van Persie in the box, the fouled player scored with his penalty.
Now I'll go to bed and hope I won't have any nightmares about the match tomorrow.