The goal that will warm his five thousand fans who are in France but also that will probably keep him alive in the hunt for the qualification to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, is looking for tonight (21:45, PrimeSports) APOEL in the snowy Lyon… "We will do everything to make the rematch important," said Jovanovic, while Remy Gard said that "the two teams start from the same point" and that "APOEL has more experienced players" - but this is not proven by the statistics.
The weather "sweetened"
After the snow that fell on Monday night (13/02) the weather has "sweetened" and during the race the temperature is calculated at zero degrees Celsius - good, compared to the previous days. The field has been "burned" by the ice and on the eve of the match APOEL was not allowed to train at "Zerlan" - he sent them to the Lyon coach right next door - something that irritated Ivan Jovanovic a lot. The lawn is covered and maintained with special bulbs that heated it.
Except for Oliveira
Out of action is Marcelo Oliveira who had not lost a minute in the Group matches. The whole training was done by Paulo Georges and he will play normally. In the eyes of 500-600 friends of APOEL, but also people of Lyon who were watching from the hostels of the coaching staff, Jovanovic did not open his cards in the last training session, as he always does.
Marcinho or Elder
Essentially, the position of the staff is played in the 4-5-1 between the attacking Marcinho and the Elder who marks more. Favorite is the first. In Lyon are all the players, even the kids Panagiotou, Christofidis, Antoniou and Antoniadis - the last two also played in the mini duel. Manduka can not play 90 minutes, while Ailton after the operation has played a total of 90 minutes, in two games. Predrag Erak, Jovanovic's assistant, lost his father on Monday (February 13th) and has not decided whether he will be on the bench.
The Lyon system
Remy Gard does not have stopper Lovren at his disposal. He trained his players at noon on Monday (13/02). He seemed particularly down to earth in the press conference, trying to get the message across to the arrogant French (players, journalists, fans). There are no other problems.
Although in the last two league matches he played with 4-4-2, nevertheless it is estimated that he will go to 4-5-1 leaving a forward (probably Gomis) on the bench, so that on the one hand he has Gurkuf (as a staff) on the field and on the other hand a reliable solution in his hands to make a change. Other surprises are not ruled out in the application of rotation, especially at the ends of the midline.
Gandalf for the French the Italian
The match will be whistled by the 40-year-old Italian Paolo Tagliavento who had made Omonia - Vaslui (1-1) in 2009. In three games with the Italian, the French teams count two defeats and a draw. He has been in Serie A since 2003, has been an international since 2007 - he has been fourth in UEFA matches since 2004 - and for the first time he coached the Champions League in 2010.
IDENTITY
Stadium: "Zerlan" - 40.500 spectators
Start time: 21:45 CY
TV: PrimeSports
Referee: Paolo Tagliavento (Italy)
Possible tips:
Lyon - 4-5-1 (Remy Gard): Loris, Reveier, Kone, Chris, Sissoko, Kallstrom, Grenier, Bastos (Lacazette), Gurkuf, Brian (Anderson), Lisandro
APOEL - 4-5-1 (Ivan Jovanovic): Chiotis, Poursaitidis, Kaka, Georges, Boaventura, Morais, Pinto, Marcinho (Elder), Charalambidis, Triskovski, Ailton
- According to UEFA, Alexandrou, Oliveira, Triskovski, Pinto, George and Gomis, Kalstrom, Chris are on the card limit.
"Orange" river
In addition to the 2.200 APOEL fans on the south platform, another 2.300 - 2.500 will be somewhere together and scattered throughout the stadium. There will be no movement of fans so that the Cypriots can all sit together as such a thing was deemed impossible. About 2.500 APOEL fans will go to the stadium by coach, the rest by subway. Security measures are increased, the presence of the police in training was strong. The French are very strict and very meticulous in controlling the entrances. There are 80 tickets available from 15:00 - 17:30 from the Hilton, where the team stays.
It does not fill
On Monday, tickets for the match were sold from 20 to 150 euros, with a 30% discount for members. "Zerlan" will probably not be full. Minors (under 18) will enter for free.
INTERESTING
- APOEL has once faced a French team. It was in 1993 for the Cup Winners' Cup when he lost to Paris 1-0 in Makareio and 2-0 in "Parc des Princes".
- Lyon has nine consecutive appearances in the "16" - in the first two participations in the Champions League, it was eliminated, finishing third. From 2004 to 2006 he was in the quarterfinals. For the last five years, he has counted four exclusions in the "16" phase. Exception in 2010 when he played in the semifinals, excluding Real.
- Lyon has once lost to "Zerlan" in the "16" phase. He has three draws and four wins.
- In six away games in the Champions League, APOEL has two wins, three draws and one defeat, from Wisla.
- Brian and Gurukov played Morais opponents in a France-Portugal match of Hope in 2006. The French won.
- Brian scored against Cyprus in a match of Hope in 2005 where Solomou played.
- Lisandro was the opponent of Kaka, Marcinho and Georges in Portugal from 2006 to 2008.
LYON
- Has conceded the first goal in its last four games. Only 8 times in 37 matches this year he kept the hearth intact.
- It is in all four goals: Champions League, Championship (at -10 from Paris), Cup (it is in the "8") and League Cup (it is in the final).
- The 18-year-old stopper Umiti comes from the academies and made his debut a month ago, as Kone and Mensa were absent in the Copa Africa. Umiti was born in Cameroon.
- Gomis has 9 goals in the last 11 matches, he scored five times in a row before the match with Caen.
APOEL
- Has the fewest goals (6), missed shots (10), shots on goal (17) and corners (17) of all the teams playing in the "16".
- Has the most yellow cards (19) from the teams that continue in the "16".
- Solari has 52 goals in 91 league games with APOEL never losing when the Argentine scores.
- Of the 58 goals that APOEL has scored this year, 44 were scored in the second half.
Source: KATHIMERINI