Karim Benzema Keeps Lyon’s Double Hopes Alive, and more CdF News

By: Laurie | March 19th, 2008

Lyon’s Champions League dreams may be history, but Karim Benzema managed to keep their hopes of a double alive. Lyon won their Coupe de France game against Sochaux yesterday with a late Benzema strike, going up 2-1 at the tail end of regulation time. (He also scored the first goal.)

The Lyonnais have not won the Coupe de France in thirty-five years. They’re nowhere close to there yet — this win guarantees them only a spot on the quarter-finals. But it’s a lot better than the alternative.

Lyon has been struggling a bit this season. Their form has improved some recently, and they’re still at the top of the Ligue 1 table, but in recent years they’ve run away with le Championnat. This year it’s been a horse race.

At one point, if I’m not mistaken, Bordeaux pulled within four points of the top. Maybe even three. This is unheard of in the current era of Lyon dominance. Les Gones (the Lyon boys) are back on top by six points at the moment, but their struggles have been enough to let doubt slip in. If they’d lost this one, there would have been hell to pay with the fans.

But they didn’t. Benzema saved the day, yet again, scoring his 28th and 29th goals for the year (in all competitions.) No wonder everybody and his dog wants to sign this kid. And no wonder Lyon just gave up the moon to keep their Lyon-bred boy at home through 2014.

In more Coupe de France news, Paris St. Germain is still alive also after beating Bastia, a Ligue 2 team. Good news for the Parisians, who have not had the best of years. (Remember the riots?) They’re currently sitting outside the relegation zone, but only on goal differential. With luck this will give them a much-needed shot of confidence. Because I shudder to think what their fans would do if they got relegated.

In the lower-level CdF clashes:

Ligue 2 Dijon reached the quarter-finals with a 3-1 win over third division Tours while Sedan beat Angers 2-0 in an all Ligue 2 clash.

Today’s CdF games are:

18:00 Bordeaux – Lille (both Ligue 1)
20:00 Amiens (Ligue 2) – Arles (CFAmateurs, B)
20:00 Lorient – Metz (both Ligue 1)
20:45 Carquefou (division 5 amateurs!!) – Marseille (Ligue 1)

That last one’s a toughie to figure out who to root for. I love Marseille, but I sure wouldn’t mind seeing a Division 5 team go through.