Olympique Lyon 1-1 Real Madrid: Lucky French Survive
On Tuesday night, Olympique Lyon showed again that their luck at the Stade de Gerland against 9-time UEFA Champions League winners Real Madrid was no fluke. In a scrappy game as it was, Bafetimbi Gomis had the final word after former Lyon play maker Karim Benzema broke Real Madrid’s barren record in terms of goals away to Les Gones.
In fact, Olympique Lyon had to thank the wood-work for saving them a couple of times in the early stages of the second period. Firstly, Cristiano Ronaldo – who has quite a good record against French teams – smashed a free-kick off the top of the post in the 49th minute. A few seconds later, defender Sergio Ramos also had his header from a corner hit the wood-work.
Then came controversy when Cristiano Ronaldo’s 64th minute free-kick appeared to have been blocked with Toulalan’s arm. But whether it did or not, Real Madrid quickly punished Olympique Lyon with an opening goal from substitute Karim Benzema. The French striker had only been on the field of play for a minute!
However, Bafetimbi Gomis denied the ex-Olympique Lyon star from grabbing all the headlines as he found an equalizer 7 minutes from normal time. The game ended that way, leaving some with a question in mind: would Real Madrid ever triumph over Lyon at the Stade Gerland?
Olympique Lyon 1-1 Real Madrid: What Do Benzema And Gomis’ Goals Mean?
But that won’t be the main point for Los Blancos’ supporters and for neutral football analysts. The interesting issue would be between the weight of Benzema’s away goal and Real Madrid’s failure to hold on to a famous and vital lead against Les Gones.
A couple of important facts will divide the opinion of football’s fans and pundits: they are Jose Mourinho’s perfect record at the Santiago Bernabeu in all competitions this season and Real Madrid’s unimpressive record against Lyon at home.
Fact: Real Madrid have drawn their 3 and only matches at the Bernabeu against Lyon. In the group stages of the 2005/2006 UEFA Champions League, Los Blancos were held 1-1 by the French side.
This score line repeated itself last season; it eventually force Real Madrid out of the competition with a 2-1 aggregate loss. In between those years, Real Madrid also drew 2-2 at home to Olympique Lyon; that was in the group stages of the 2006/2007 UEFA Champions League.
This term, a repeat of the 1-1 score lines will send the game into extra-time. Meanwhile, a 2-2 result will deny Los Blancos tickets onto the next round of the Champions League.
Well, the second leg of this European tie will reveal if the Spanish giants did enough at the Stade Gerland to break their Champions League Last 16 jinx and eventually reach the quarter-finals of the tournament at last. On March 16, the public will know if Karim Benzema’s away strike truly put one of Real Madrid’s feet into the next stage of the tournament or if Bafetimbi’s late equalizer for Olympique Lyon in fact left a deep wound inside the Spanish giants.
