FCBARCELONA.CAT

18.09.2007 15:57

Lyon arrive in form

Sergi Nogueras

After losing two of their first three games in Ligue 1, Olympique Lyonnais have put together a run of four consecutive victories to push themselves back towards the top of the French table and they travel to Camp Nou in fine form.

In the opening seven games of the French season, Alain Perrin's side have recorded five wins and two defeats. Those two reverses came in back-to-back encounters against Toulouse and Lorient in weeks two and three of the campaign. Since then, the team has chalked up four victories, with the last coming at the weekend when Metz were swept aside as Lyon won 5-1. Perin's side are not second in the table and are hot on the heels of the leaders as they look to win their seventh straight league title.

All change

Perrin took as the coach of Lyon at the end of last season and has spent the summer rebuilding the squad after several key players were sold. Éric Abidal, Florent Malouda and Tiago all left the club, while Fabio Grosso, Cléber Anderson and Nadir Belhadj came in.

Key players

With Cris nursing an injury, Lyon's key players for the game against FC Barcelona lie in midfield where Kim Källström and Toulalan work alongside the team leader, Juninho Pernambucano. The Brazilian poses a danger from all over the pitch, but is especially deadly from set pieces as he has scored numerous spectacular free-kicks. Benzema and Ben Arfa will play up front and the dup have already shown how dangerous they can be having scored eight goals between them in the first seven league games of the season.