Lyon's defeat to Rangers didn't happen by chance

European Leagues / Alsy / 09 October 2007 / Leave a comment

Morgan in the driving seat - Alister Morgan explains why despite still being kings of France, Lyon are struggling in the Champions League

Olympique Lyonnais dominates football in France. For anyone unfamiliar with the Ligue 1 consider the position of Celtic and Rangers in Scottish football. Merge these pre-eminent sides together (admittedly this could only happen in the realm of fantasy) with all their domestic titles and then switch Scotland for France. What you're left with is Lyon - a team streets ahead of the domestic competition.

Nevertheless, despite a plethora of Ligue 1 titles all is not well behind the scenes at Lyon. Gerard Houllier resigned as manager at the end of last season after delivering a record-breaking sixth consecutive title. 'Success' for Lyon has now been redefined and the higher ante now requires European success for the French Champions. Unfortunately for Lyon, Europe's elite clubs are not as compliant as the teams in Ligue 1.

Celtic's impressive victory against Milan last week dominated headlines for various reasons but Rangers' 3-0 victory away to Lyon was arguably more impressive. Needless to say Lyon fans have been up in arms about the result. They want their team to compete against Europe's best but at present they're struggling to make an impression against European opposition of any kind.

Domestically it's business as usual - Lyon tops the table with 22pts after ten games and is currently (1.34) to defend their title. You can get astronomical odds for their nearest rivals to win Ligue 1 with Marseille (40), PSG (48) and Toulouse (50) inspiring little or no confidence in punters. Nancy (18.5) and Le Mans (120) lie second and third respectively but the other 'big' teams are nowhere to be seen... yet.

Lyon's domestic form is of little comfort while they continue to struggle in Europe. Four years ago they seemed on the verge of something special after thrilling football fans with their strong flowing play. Fast forward to the present Champions League campaign and they're struggling to navigate their way out of group E.

They lost their first game 3-0 to Barcelona which wasn't a great start but at least that fixture was away to one of the hot favourites. Now they sit bottom of the group with zero points and a million questions relating to what went wrong.

Keen-eyed Portsmouth fans might not be too surprised as the new Lyon manager, Alain Perrin, didn't exactly cover himself in glory during his short stint in the South coast. You can now back Lyon (2.6) to qualify from a group that includes Barcelona, Stuttgart and Rangers but at present it might be better to consider laying Lyon to qualify or (290) to win the group outright.

Lyon's European form has been in decline for a while now and they haven't scored in the Champions League since Diarra scored against Steaua Bucharest last season. That's 438 minutes of Champions League football and counting.

If Barcelona continues to win their games it looks like a straight scrap for the final qualifying place and at present I wouldn't back Lyon to win at Ibrox and certainly not by three goals. There's one more important factor that suggests that Lyon's poor European form will continue - lack of players with top European experience.

In recent years Lyon could count Juninho, Eric Abidal, Michael Essien, Sylvain Wiltord, Giovane Elber and Florent Malouda among their rank. With the exception of Juninho, all these players have left the club. New talent like record signing Abdul Kader Keita (Lyon paid €18m but still started him on the bench against Rangers starting instead with Milan Baros) arrived to bolster the attack while midfielder Mathieu Bodmer is a Rolls Royce of a player but neither have enough European experience.

They've sold too much of the family silver to beat the best in Europe so Lyon will have to wait a few years until the latest crop of talent matures.