Jean-Michel Aulas should be careful what he wishes for. The Lyon president kicked up a stink when Bordeaux's game against Valenciennes was brought forward to allow them more time to prepare for their Champions League tie at Roma and demanded the same for his team. Never mind that Lyon had already qualified from Group F, or that Wednesday's home game against Bayern Munich is so important that Juninho and Cris got themselves deliberately booked against Fiorentina so they would be suspended for it. Aulas won his battle with the French league, who switched Lyon's game to Saturday night, only for his players to let him down: Lyon lost for the first time in 40 games after taking the lead, beaten 2–1 at improving Nantes.
Of course, Aulas found more reasons to complain after the match, moaning that the referee, Damien Ledentu, should have given Lyon a penalty when the score was 1–1 and that Nantes' last-minute spot-kick from the substitute Ivan Klasnic should never have been awarded because Lamine Gassama's challenge was outside the area. He had a point on both, though, according to L'Equipe, "Fred fell too easily for the first and … the second was extremely disputable".
None of which changes the fact that, in the last three league games, including the one in which Karim Benzema went off injured against PSG, Lyon have picked up just one point. Juninho and Sidney Govou have both been suspended in that period, while Lyon's defensive injury curse struck again when John Mensah was injured in the warm-up (and with Cris out and Mathieu Bodmer still crocked, Jean-Alain Boumsong appears the only fit centre-back available to face Bayern). "Cris is not performing well, Gassama is too young, John Mensah is not a centre-back and Hugo Lloris does not have Grégory Coupet's charisma," was the defensive analysis from France Football's Jérôme Bigot.
Jérémy Toulalan claimed his individual error, when he lost the ball before Nantes' equaliser, had changed the game. "We'd have won it without my mistake," he said. But his admission cannot mask the failings of the coach Claude Puel's rotation system at the moment: the players who come in (like the under-performing Kader Keïta) are struggling to adapt to Puel's new system and their obvious preference is to play more offensively. Despite their troubles, though, Puel remains popular among his players (certainly much more so than his predecessors Alain Perrin and Gérard Houllier). Bigot is convinced that Lyon's three-point lead will become eight points by the end of January, but their struggles when Benzema is missing do not bode well for next season, when he is likely to have moved on.
Nantes, on the other hand, are scrambling away from trouble thanks to the combustible Elie Baup, who was ignored by his own players when demanding the ball be kicked out of play following Filip Djordjevic's first-half injury. It was only when Baup bellowed at Kim Kallstrom that the Swede, bemused and probably slightly afraid, poked the ball into touch. It's a sign of how far Klasnic has dropped down the pecking order that he didn't come on even then — bad-boy Mamadou Bagayoko was first off the bench — but when the Croat did eventually appear, he scored his first goal in 900 minutes of French football 63 seconds later. "Perhaps the best solution for Ivan is to come off the bench because he certainly wanted to prove a point," said Baup after Klasnic doubled his tally from the penalty-spot.
The last time Lyon lost from a winning position was in November 2007 against Marseille, their opponents who come to the Gerland next week only three points behind the leaders. L'OM were excellent in the first half against Nice, taking a two-goal lead through an Olivier Echouafni own-goal and a Mamadou Niang penalty after "Sex and Drugs and" Cyril Rool ended Mathieu Valbuena's cheeky dribble. Habib Bamogo scored the goal of the week to halve the lead and Steve Mandanda kept L'OM in it with a great save from Eric Mouloungui with 10 minutes left. In injury-time Chaouki Ben Saada's long-range effort rattled Mandanda's crossbar but bounced to safety.
The result, and Niang's broken toe that will keep him out for six weeks, was overshadowed by the three-and-a-half-year jail sentence handed by a Spanish court to L'OM fan Santos Mirasierra following trouble in the Atlético-Marseille match back in October. Didier Drogba, Franck Ribéry and Zinedine Zidane (after slagging off those who criticised him in recent books, including Emmanuel Petit, of whom he said, "I never want to see him again") have spoken in support of Santos, while even the Spanish feel he has been made a scapegoat.
El Pais wrote, "There was nothing in court that proved he threw a seat that struck a policeman". The club's president, Pape Diouf, addressed the Vélodrome before the Nice game, asking for calm when Atlético visit on Tuesday night. "We must not give those who think that we're all madmen at Marseille the slightest reason to continue their campaign," he said. "We count on your dignity." The Ultras have said they will not enter the stadium, explaining in an open letter that, "without our friend, football does not make sense". Atlético have asked their fans not to travel but L'OM's coach, Eric Gerets, is still worried. "I'm afraid about the game and I'm afraid for the future of our club. I want the Ultras to watch the game but we have to set the right example on the pitch."
Rennes stay in third place, one point behind Marseille, after drawing 1–1 at Caen, who are coping well without the injured trio of Juan Eluchans, Anthony Deroin and Fahid Ben Khalfallah. Caen were lucky to go in ahead at half-time. "I told the players I was loving it then," said the Caen coach, Franck Dumas. "Rennes had nine shots and could have scored four while we scored with our only effort." The Rennes manager, Guy Lacombe, countered, "I've never seen a team so dominated at home," even though his team would have lost for the first time in 15 games had Steve Savidan not shinned a late chance over the bar.
Elsewhere, Bordeaux did what Lyon failed to do and beat Valenciennes 2–1 at home, after Laurent Blanc finally started with Marouane Chamakh and Fernando Cavenaghi up front, and both men scored. Kevin Gameiro enhanced his growing reputation with the winner for Lorient as they beat Nancy 1–0 while Grenoble, without a home goal in their past six games, and Auxerre, with three goals in their past 10, played out the week's most predictable goalless draw.
Alain Perrin secured his second win in a row at Saint-Etienne, though he did point out, "It was only against Le Havre". He has been rewarded for restoring out-of-favour players such as Jérémie "Spiderman" Janot and Daisuke Matsui to the squad. "Everyone feels involved again," said Janot. PSG now boast Ligue 1's top scorer after Guillaume Hoarau's two goals, the first set up by the outstanding Stéphane Sessegnon, helped earn a 3–1 win over Le Mans.
Before all eyes turn to Lyon-Marseille next weekend, attention will switch to Europe, where Marseille and Bordeaux could slip into the Uefa Cup and potentially join Saint-Etienne, Nancy and PSG in the round of 32. This is especially relevant given French sides' recent poor showing in the competition: in the past 10 years, only Marseille and Lens have reached the semi-finals, and no French team has reached any European semi-final since 2003-04. That explains why France are set to be overtaken by Germany in next season's Uefa rankings and could soon fall behind Russia and Romania, meaning their three-club Champions League allocation would be cut. The French league is even discussing a plan, at the moment under wraps, to offer clubs a cash bonus for reaching the Uefa Cup quarter-finals. Expect Aulas to make a big fuss once that becomes public, but perhaps he should spend more time worrying about problems closer to home.
Results Bordeaux 2–1 Valenciennes; Caen 1–1 Rennes; Marseille 2–1 Nice; Lille 1–1 Toulouse; Saint-Etienne 2–0 Le Havre; Nantes 2–1 Lyon; Monaco 1–1 Sochaux; Lorient 1–0 Nancy; Grenoble 0–0 Auxerre; PSG 3–1 Le Mans
