Lyon eased their way past Benfica with a routine 2-0 victory to stay top of Group B.
Lopez and Briand on target to give French side three wins out of three
Lyon eased their way past Benfica with a routine 2-0 victory at the Stade Gerland to cement their place at the top of Group B.
The French side were fully in control of the game against the Portuguese side to keep their hopes of qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League, with three wins out of three so far.
Goals from Jimmy Briand and Lisandro Lopez in either half were enough to see their opponents off, who went down to ten men at the end of the first half when Nico Gaitan was dismissed for a second yellow card.
Benfica offered little throughout, with their key men in Javier Saviola and Pablo Aimar failing to inspire any sort of performance at all to leave them floundering in third place in the group.
Both teams had never met in the Champions League before, despite their obvious pedigree in Europe's top club competition, but neither had made good starts to their respective seasons domestically.
Lyon had to cope without French international Jeremy Toulalan in midfield, whilst the Portuguese side were without striker Oscar Cardozo, although they were given a boost after Portugal full-back Fabio Coentrao managed to shake off a knock he sustained on international duty.
The first real chance of the evening fell on the 15 minute mark as Saviola put in a good cross for Alan Kardec, but he could only endeavour to head the ball over from around eight yards out.
Breakthrough
But the breakthrough came for Lyon in the 21st minute as Benfica sloppily gave the ball away to allow the home side two opportunities in the space of just seconds.
Michel Bastos managed to get through a static defence to hit a low strike with his left foot off the post, but despite the warning, the away side gave the ball straight back to Bastos to allow him to pull a cross back to allow Briand to head home.
The chances came thick and fast for Lyon, with Bastos almost scoring a header and Briand scuffing a strike wide of goal just minutes later.
Benfica were gaining more of the possession but were failing to make any of it count, with Bastos, Lopez and Briand looking the more dangerous on the attack when they had the ball.
The Portuguese champions were unlucky not to get a decision go their way as Carlos Martins looked to run through on goal with seven minutes of the half remaining. But with a huge gap opening up in the middle of the Lyon defence, Pape Diakhate checked the Brazilian but received no punishment and denied them a dangerous free-kick on the edge of the box.
Tougher
It got even tougher for the visitors as Gaitan was dismissed after slipping over then holding back Miralem Pjanic just three minutes before the end of the half.
Almost straight from the restart Lyon were nearly two up, with Yoan Gourcuff bursting into the box to pull back for Lopez, however, he scuffed his right-footed shot from close range straight into the arms of Roberto.
And Lopez should have easily made amends as Briand broke down the right to feed him for an easy chance, but he slid his left footed shot wide of the left-hand post.
But the goal finally arrived for the Argentine as he pounced on another cross from Briand to first see his headed effort saved, but followed up to tap home after Briand initially struck the post but got the ball back on the follow-up.
It was almost three as Bastos lined up a terrific volley directly from Miralem Pjanic's outswinging corner to the edge of the box, but saw his effort well saved.
Roberto then made a stunning save to deny Bastos again from point-blank range after initially parrying Pjanic's long-range free-kick.
Benfica were threatening very little, and Lyon looked like they could extend their lead should they step up a gear at any time, but manager Claude Puel took the game easy from there on, withdrawing star man Bastos on the hour mark to almost confirm that the game was effectively over.
| Lyon |
Team Statistics |
Benfica |
| 2 |
Goals |
0 |
| 1 |
1st Half Goals |
0 |
| 7 |
Shots on Target |
0 |
| 10 |
Shots off Target |
5 |
| 1 |
Blocked Shots |
2 |
| 3 |
Corners |
8 |
| 14 |
Fouls |
15 |
| 5 |
Offsides |
2 |
| 1 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
1 |
| 83.1 |
Passing Success |
73.1 |
| 37 |
Tackles |
26 |
| 78.4 |
Tackles Success |
69.2 |
| 63 |
Possession |
37 |
| 48.1 |
Territorial Advantage |
51.9 |
|
