Paris Saint-Germain hold Lyonnais to draw

Leaving Stade Gerland Friday evening the face of Lyonnais supporters said it all as chances of the seven-fold champions repeating have grown dim after being held to a nil draw by les Rouge et Bleu. For the Parisians it was a wonderfully tough performance, played with the passion and intensity and leaves them a very good position to climb the table in the five remaining matches.

For much of the first forty-five minutes, play was typified by gradually increasing tensions ready to boil over at any moment and letter perfect defending. Stéphane Sessegnon led the way for Paris Saint-Germain in many forms as his stubborn demeanor set the tone that the Parisians would not back down and kept opportunities to a minimum. After Karim Benzema missed the mark in the later part of the half, PSG was fortunate not being adjudged a handball as the young strikers header attempt unquestionably struck Ceará. However while Stade Gerland screamed for justice, Paul Le Guen’s focused its attention upon air-tight defending of Lyonnais and waited for its moment to strike. As matches of this go, opportunities are the rarest of breeds and usually only present themselves once. Finally three minutes before the hour Ceará long diagonal ball set-up Guillaume Hoarau in on alone on l’OL ‘keeper Hugo Lloris but his effort to the right was pushed aside and the deadlock was intact. Minutes later tension boiled over as Stéphane Sessegnon retaliated to an earlier infraction with a hearty challenge of Jean-Alain Boumsong and was fortunate to escape with just a yellow. L’OL controlled the majority of possession but attacking advances but fell short in the final third and the few that made it through fell victim to Mickaël Landreau’s brilliant work as the match ended as a nil draw.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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