The Unsurprising Upset

Snow got me out of work early and also gave me an opportunity to catch some Champs League without making pretend I had something to do. I caught almost the whole second half of Lyon-Madrid and I have to say it was worth it. Real's troubles in France are well documented and in the lead up to the match the Spanish press seemed confident this time would be different. But it was not. I did not see the first half but Lyon were clearly in control in the second. They had a game plan and held to it rigidly. They made it very difficult for Real Madrid to move the ball up the field on the ground and as a result they began using searching/hoping longer passes that were gobbled up by the backline. Positionally Lyon were very sound. Madrid did get forward on some occasions but there was very little real danger. Kaka especially seemed to be devoid of ideas with the ball at his feet and 25 yards or less from goal. The Lyon counter attack was superb knowing when to commit men forward and when to put on the breaks and wait, sucking Madrid's attacking players back down the field. Of the Madrid players the only one I thought looked really good (in attack at least, the defense was not too bad, the one goal aside) was Benzema. At times Granero had some good touches but he disappeared for stretches of the game.

What to expect in the return leg? I don't know. Lyon didn't fluke into this win and they can very realistically get a result. That said Madrid will have a lot to play for and are absolutely capable of erasing the minimal deficit. I would note Roma and Liverpool have gotten results at the Bernabeu at this stage of the competition the last two years, and neither were elite teams. They both crashed out in the following round.

In the other Tuesday game United got a 3-2 win at the San Siro which is not really a surprise. United are not the team they were when they came with in a game of doing the double back to back, but it is clear that United minus Tevez and Ronaldo is still better than Milan minus Kaka.