French Football: Lyon in good heart despite PSG loss

Lyon head coach Remi Garde

Paris Saint-Germain may be joint-top of Ligue 1 after beating Lyon on Sunday, but for their opponents, the future is looking bright, reports Ben Lyttleton...

So, 'la crise' at Paris Saint-Germain is over. Just short of 12 months after Carlo Ancelotti took over the club, the team is where it was last year, top of the table. Never mind that in the intervening year, PSG managed to let slip the title to Montpellier, spent over €150m on new talent, the latest of whom, Lucas Moura, joins the squad very soon and that only two weeks ago Ancelotti was fighting to save his job.

Back then, a run of three defeats in five game had left PSG five points off the pace in Ligue 1 but a Champions League win over Porto, which ensured PSG finished top of Group A going into Thursday's Round of 16 draw - and for which they are 26.025/1 to win - has sparked a mini-revival and banished the talk of Ibra-reliance, and dressing-room disharmony between the French and Spanish-speakers, at least for now.

It was significant then, that the match-winner in PSG's fairly dire Sunday night 1-0 win over a depleted Lyon side was French: Blaise Matuidi, whose header on the stroke of half-time won a scrappy game, and whose performances this season have showed the consistency that PSG have lacked.
 
That said, it was hardly a dominating performance: it said more for the openness of this season's Ligue 1 race that PSG could never fully relax against a Lyon side that was missing a host of players: Alex Lacazette, Jimmy Briand, Mouhamdou Dabo, Clement Grenier, and Yoann Gourcuff. That loss, particulalry the latter two players, showed in the second half whea shortage of creaitivity gave PSG an easier ride than might otherwise have been the case. By the time Christophe Jallet and Ezequiel Lavezzi came close to doubling the hosts' lead late on, Lyon had barely threatened in the second period.

And yet PSG's lead is a slender one: they are only top on goal difference, with both Lyon and Marseille, 1-0 winners at Toulouse, also with them. PSG are 1.374/11 to win Ligue 1 with Lyon 4.57/2 and Marseille 9.617/2. While the three are arguably France's biggest three clubs, both Lyon and Marseille finished out of the top three last season and, goven summers in which they off-loaded their biggest payers (in Lyon's case, Cris, Kim Kallstrom and Aly Cissokho, for Marseille, Stephane M'Bia and Alou Diarra) they have done well to stay the course, so far.

Can it last, though? The French press seem to think that Lyon has the better chance, with France Football listing last week ten reasons why they could push PSG all the way. Prominent among them was coach Remi Garde, who has fulfilled every position at the club, from graduate player, to captain, to youth coach, head of the academy and assistant boss before taking over 18 months ago. He is popular and intelligent and with continued speculation about the future of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, cannot be discounted as a potential successor. 

The men above him have changed their functions too: president Jean-Michel Aulas is no longer a fire-starter in the press, he speaks far less often and because he does, his words carry greater impact; and Bernard Lacombe, the sports director (officially, advisor to the president) who was sidelined in the reign of Claude Puel but is now a subtle influence: often when Bafe Gomis or Michel Bastos score, they will invoke Lacombe and say, "Bernard said I would have a good game today!" As France Football asked: "How often do you hear Ibra or Lavzezzi talk about Leonardo like that?"

On the pitch Lyon have made great strides too: they play an attractive attacking game, with a style that has far more identity to it than PSG's reliance on individual brilliance. Two players have surprised with their quality too: Remi Vercoutre, for 10 years a number two to Hugo Lloris but now a worthy number one: "He is a 2CV and (Saint-Etienne's) Stephane Ruffier is a Ferrari," goaded Sainte boss Roland Romeyer last week. Not true: "he's more like a reliable family car," wrote France Football. And then there is Steed Malbranque whose rehabilitation as a holding midfielder has been key to Lyon's success.

Unlike at PSG, too, there is a new generation of players coming through the fantastic youth set-up at Tola-Vologe. Every senior player seems to have a young rival for his place: Dejan Lvoren has Samuel Umtiti, Gourcuff has Grenier, Bastos or Lisandro have Rachid Ghezzal and Gomis, linked last night to Chelsea, has Yassine Benzia. 

Will it be enough to push PSG all the way, and upset the apple-cart just as Montpellier did last year? Maybe not, but for the first time in a few years, the future is looking good at Lyon.