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Champions League

Real Madrid vs. Lyon

Real Madrid have played a very exciting match against Sevilla last Saturday winning 3-2 and ending the weekend as new leader of La Liga. After seeing them play I am quite sure Real Madrid can beat Lyon and go through to quarters in this tournament. Sevilla who is a very tough away team and is also a Champions league title challenger was winning the match 0-2 by half time. The return of genius Guti plus Van der Vaart in the second half changed everything and Real Madrid ended up winning in a thrilling match by 3-2 in the last minute as already said. The difference could have been much bigger if it wasn’t for Sevilla’s goalkeeper Palop’s amazing saves; also must add that the number of shots counted for Real Madrid was over 30. There is no doubt that the return of Guti into the starting lineup this Wednesday will have a huge effect on Real Madrid who has won every single match at their home stadium this season and should win once more against Lyon. With Guti on the field we shall see Real Madrid solve the problems they had against Lyon in the first leg when they couldn’t connect passes between defense and offense. Also the tactic will be changed to the diamond formation 4-4-2 that is working so well in terms of goal-scoring in Spanish league which hasn’t been applied in Lyon.

I am not much of a French league fan but it looks like they slipped some points in their domestic match against one of the bottom teams last weekend. In my opinion O. Lyon played great against Real Madrid at home but also I believe that the result of the match was influenced by bad decisions made from Real’s manager Pellegrini. Lyon played a very conservative version of R. Madrid, not seen in a long time with players such as M. Diarra in the starting team which was very surprising. I have my doubts that Lyon will be capable of surprising anyone in Madrid when nobody has done it yet.

Real Madrid has shown that they are true fighters, they have won match after match in league in able to take over the first place and finally after huge hard work they received their prize. When they needed to turn the score around against Sevilla they did it because they knew that if they win, they were leaders. They will be missing Xabi Alonso who is suspended but this will be the perfect excuse to put in genius Guti who will push Real Madrid to a higher level. I can assure you that this match won’t be anything like the first leg, up until now the only team that has pushed Real Madrid to their limits at home was Sevilla and thanks to that we have seen the most amazing version of Real Madrid so far this season.

I personally believe that Lyon will not surprise anyone. The task of holding Real Madrid’s big guns at home is extremely difficult, nobody has done it yet, and I think that right now there is no team capable of doing so at the moment. Plus with these pre-match conditions of being forced to turn around the score at home, with full stadium and with Guti back on the team I expect to see Real Madrid play like champs once again and go through to quarters convincingly.

Real Madrid should outgun Lyon and go through. Real Madrid-1. 5 AH @ 1. 92 looks good. Maybe the odd will drop, so I’m posting this now.

Record Date : 08/03/2010 14:33