Olympique Lyonnais-Real Madrid CF
Football: UEFA Champions' League
Tuesday, 16th February 2010. Kickoff 20:45

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Olympique Lyonnais

Claude Puel is hanging on by the thread called “Champions League”. Should the French giants fail to progress to the 1/4 finals of the prestigious tournament – the head coach position in Lyon will most likely become vacant. OL set-backs in the Ligue 1 are no longer a surprise and their domestic hegemony has been captured by Bordeaux.

Despite having a squad filled with talented players, such as Pjanic, Gomis, Kallstrom, Sissokho, Bastos and others Puel can’t repeat his success at Monaco around 5 years ago. Just to remind you, that it was Claude who led Monegasque club to surprising French championship before leaving Cote D’azur in search of new motivation.

Lyon easily stormed through their UCL group beating Liverpool to the second place. Since then, however, Puel’s men visibly got off the right path. 2010 has been developing more positively for Lyon as they’re unbeaten winning 4 and drawing once in Ligue 1.

Champions’ league play-off stage has been jinxed for Lyon, one of the reasons behind Le Guen's departure. Remains to be seen if Puel manages to overcome the historical barrier.

Expected formation and line up :
Lyon(4-2-3-1)
Lloris
Reveillere, Cris, Boumsong, Cissokho
Toulalan, Kallstrom
Govou, Pjanic, Delgado
Lisandro

Real Madrid CF

Real Madrid is in vibrant mood as their handicap from Barcelona has narrowed to just two points on Sunday. The star-team is still not working to its’ full potential, but never the less occasional sparks of magic from C. Ronaldo & Co. give Pellegrini the required result.

Real had an easy 0-3 victory vs. outsider Xerez on the road over the week-end. The Chilean specialist did not risk rotating the starting line up to rest the big guns. Center back Pepe remains the only significant absentee, but with or without him Real’s defense is still shaky.

Homecoming for Karim Benzema gives him the good opportunity to be named amongst the starters despite of a slight injury. Marcelo and Ramos should occupy the left and right wingback positions respectively.

Lyon seems the perfect opponent for the Spanish giants.Los Merengues should not be pushed around much and will have enough room to run into.Just what Kaka,Ronaldo and Higuain need.

Expected formation and line up :
Real (4-2-2-2)
Casillas
Ramos, Albiol, Garay,Marcelo or Arbeloa
L. Diarra, X. Alonso
Granero,Kaka
Ronaldo,Higuain

Betting advice

There are quite a few options here to consider. UCL is a very tricky competition as any European cup. Bookies probably have the biggest turnover these days, especially in the play-offs.

So be sure to come across some mouse traps.

Despite Lyon's recent uptrend in France, I don't expect them to take it to the Champions' League stage for particular and obvious reason : the team is still raw after the departure of Benzema and Juninho.

Lyon can put up a show and score against any opponent, but the winning mentality is not there any more.

The Statistics :

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Real Madrid (-0.25) @ 1.75 with Bet365