Behind Enemy Lines

Real Madrid are set to take on French Club, Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon for short) on Tuesday at the Stade Gerland where Les Gones can brag to be rather secure. The meetings between the two sides have never swung in the favor of Los Blancos. For two season in a row, 05/06 and 06/07, Madrid was placed in the same Champions League group stage as Lyon. For those of you who know the format, understand there would have been 4 matches between the outfits in that time period. Madrid didn't win a single match of the four and failed to even score in France at all. Madrid lost in Lyon 3-0 and 2-0, frustrating days to be a Madridista to say the very least. The return legs at the Bernabeu proved to be better results, both draws, but still disappointing. Real will be looking to put the past behind them and put on a performance in the country to the Northeast. This is a special Real Madrid team who has already broken the club personal best record for number of points at this time in the season and even triumphed at the Riazor breaking a 19 year curse. The squad has unimaginable potential with its limitless talent. Big money spending this summer has brought in the best of the best with primarily this competition in mind. To be even more specific, this stage of this competition. Speaking of curses right? Real Madrid has failed to progress past the Round of 16 in the Champions League for the last five seasons falling to Juventus, Arsenal, Bayern Munchen, Roma, and Liverpool in that order. Last year was the most terrifying exit yet where Los Merengue were thumped 5-0 on aggregate, losing 1-0 at the Bernabeu, and a tragic 4-0 in Liverpool ( I could go into the story of the other 4 defeats but it hurts bad enough just to mention it). We need to emerge from one of the darkest periods in the club's European history in a desperate drive to reach the final in the capital city of Spain and the fortress of a ground we call home, Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. All of this in pursuit of La Decima (the tenth).

Let's take a look at some key facts. When Madrid so unconvincingly played Lyon a couple seasons back, Lyon was in the heart of their 7 year reign as champion of Ligue 1. OL won the crown every year from the 2001-2002 season to the 2007-2008 season. This season, things are different and on paper, Madrid's line up is far superior to Lyon's (but in actuality that means nothing. This is football, anything is known to happen). Last season they finally handed the title over to Bordeaux and handed their leading goalscorer, Karim Benzema over to us for 35 million. Not only was Benzema Lyon's big gun but the top scorer in the French league last season too. Benzema is fighting fitness rather optimistically to make the trip to France on Tuesday. However, Karim isn't the only former Lyon player in our team. Mahamadou Diarra was part of the Lyon side that thrashed us 3-0 in 2005 but the fallowing season scored a goal against Lyon for us in the 1-1 draw in Spain.

After a slow start to their 2009-2010 campaign, OL have climbed back into 4th place, only 6 points off of leaders Bordeaux (at 2:40 AM Sunday). Lyon's leading league scorer is former Porto striker, Lisandro "Lilo" Lopez, with 9 goals, fallowed by Bafetimbi Gomis on 7 goals who was picked up from St. Etienne this summer. But, the front men arn't all we need to worry about. Aly Cissokho, who was also signed from Porto after a failed move to Milan is a pacy individual who can serve dangerous balls into the box from the flanks. Also the Bosnian youngster Miralem Pjanic is one of the hottest up and coming stars in Europe and a threat from midfield.

In the Champions League this season, Lyon haven't been beaten at the Stade Gerland and only conceded 1 goal there in the group stage. This comes up against Real Madrid's impressive away record in the Champions League (definately not La Liga) this season. Real are unbeaten in their travels and already trumped French outfit Marseille, who are only a point and a place behind Lyon in Ligue 1 with a game in hand (again very early on Sunday morning) 3-1 in France earlier this season.

Real Madrid's two biggest signings this summer know one or two things about knocking Lyon out of this competition. In the 2005/2006 Champions League, Kaka and AC Milan bumped OL out of the Quarter finals. In 2007/2008, Ronaldo and Manchester United sent the French crashing out in this stage of the competition and went on to lift the trophy against Chelsea in the Moscow final.

It seems like for the first time in practically forever, Madrid might be able to start arguably its best XI. Benzema will most likely miss due to injury but many, including myself, would rather see Pipita as the starting striker leading the line. Guti is expected to recover from his ankle injury and any question marks about Albiol and VDV have been erased because they were able to rest against Xerez. The only real question that I cannot answer is how many holding midfielders we will go with. Pellegrini has been switching back and forth between a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-1-3-2 for the last 4 matches and personally I think we do better with the single pivot (aka the 4-1-3-2 because of the one holding center midfielder, which allows us another forward). So I designed 2 starting line-ups I'd like to see with the two different formations:



I'm much more in favor in the single pivot because it allows us to attack better with more combinations up top and more players in area to aim for on crosses from Ramos and Arbeloa thundering up the flanks. Kaka now has two forwards to sit behind like he does for the Brazilian National Team. Also with my 4-1-3-2, I can allow Ronaldo to work off Higuain, leaving the right midfield open for Granero who has been great lately. If we go with the double pivot, Granero might not see the field and Lass, who has been not himself or impressive at all (if I'm being nice) will be on instead.

I developed a checklist starting from with the most important things we need to take away from this match.

1. Obviously a win. That way we can take the tie back to the Bernabeu where we have been exceptional (minus AC Milan) this year.

2. Away Goals. The away goal rules always ousts somebody every season. With our players, not scoring is unacceptable. We can put a dagger in their hearts before the second leg if we can manage 2 or 3 goals on tuesday.

3. A clean sheet. If we can tuck'm away at one end and keep'm out on ours, we'll be in fabulous shape.

4. Stay out of yellow card trouble. I know one or two players are in danger of yellow card suspension. I just can't tell you who off the top of my head, Lass maybe?

It should be an interesting tie. I'm more confident about this round of 16 match than I have been with all the rest for the last 5 years. It's a must win, a do or die. If we don't progress pass this stage, it will be eyed as a disaster for the club. All the players on the team have continued to state that we can win this competition. Don't let us down after you've hyped us up. I wanna rip the Champions League crown right off the head of Catalonia with a thick chunk of hair. Hala Madrid!

Bobby