Lyon vs. Real Madrid: Lyon escape through late equalizer from Bafetimbi Gomis in their UEFA Champions League match
Olympique Lyon held Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the UEFA Champion’s League last-16-round encounter, at the Stade Gerland on Tuesday night. Bafetimbi Gomis scored a late equalizer for the hosts while Karim Benzema scored for Madrid, who
go into the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu with the luxury of an away goal.
Claude Puel played a strong side and made two changes to the team that beat http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Michel-Bastos-c25461 replaced Jimmy Braind in the midfield.
On the other hand, Jose Mourinho made wholesale changes to his line-up that beat Levante 2-0 at the weekend. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Xabi-Alonso-c37045 returned to the starting line-up, while Karim Benzema could only find
a place on the bench, against his former side.
The game started in a very lively fashion for the hosts, who enjoyed a long spell of possession in the opening ten minutes. They came extremely close of scoring in the 11th minute, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ricardo-Carvalho-c30973 cleared a free kick from Cesar Delgado, Chris tried an overhead
kick from the return ball and it went just wide of the goal.
Lyon dominated the game and Madrid’s first real chance came just after the half hour mark. Lloris made a fantastic save from Ronaldo’s bullet free kick from 25 yards to deny the Portuguese.
Meanwhile, the hosts wasted a wonderful chance of getting the lead, Casillas spilled the ball from Bastos’s cross and it fell into the path of Gomis, who fired it over the bar from eight yards.
The hosts were clearly the better side going into the break, as Madrid failed to threaten the Lyon goal on a regular basis.
The second half started at a better pace as compared to the first half. Madrid almost scored two goals immediately after the resumption. First, Ronaldo’s thunder shot from free kick struck the far post, soon after, Ramos’s header from Ozil’s corner ricocheted
off the bar to deny the Los Blancos.
Real looked a far better side as they created more openings in the second half. Just after the hour mark, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Emmanuel-Adebayor-c12526, and the Frenchman made an instant impact against his former club. Ronaldo picked out Benzema in the box and
he delayed his finish before steering it past Lloris and Chris, to make it 1-0 for the visitors.
The game dried up immediately, as Lyon were drowned by the goal. However, the hosts managed to find the equalizer in the 83rd minute, when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cris-c9486 headed from a free kick into the path of Gomis, who volleyed it past Casillas from close range to make
it 1-1. The hosts tried hard to complete a remarkable comeback and seal a win but Madrid held on and the game ended 1-1.
The second leg of the tie will be played at the Santiago Bernabeu on the 16th of March, 2011.
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