By Patrick Vignal
PARIS, Dec 9 - Olympique Lyon will battle it out
with Bayern Munich for top spot in their Champions League group
on Wednesday with a team depleted by injuries and suspensions
and morale dented by a string of poor results.
Both sides have already qualified for the knockout stages
with 11 points from five games and the only thing at stake on
the Gerland pitch will be group supremacy.
Lyon will win Group F with a victory or a goalless draw. Any
other result would hand first place to Bayern.
The seven-times French champions made sure of advancing with
a 2-1 win at Fiorentina in which the Brazilian pair of midfield
inspiration Juninho and defender Cris collected a yellow card
each meaning they will be suspended on Wednesday.
Their absence is a problem for coach Claude Puel, already
missing defenders Francois Clerc, Anthony Reveillere and John
Mensah through injuries.
Puel could also have to make do without his most dangerous
weapon, France striker Karim Benzema, a doubtful starter because
of a sore thigh muscle.
Bayern coach Juergen Klinsmann has the enviable task of
picking a starting lineup from a healthy squad that includes
Hamit Altintop who returned to action for the reserve team at
the weekend after four months out to mend a broken metatarsal.
Buoyed by their 2-1 home win against league leaders
Hoffenheim, the German champions will be hoping to go into the
winter break in style, capping the group stage with a win before
travelling to Stuttgart for their last league match of the year.
Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose should start up front with
Lukas Podolski recovering from a bout of flu.
Lyon, desperate to make an impact in Europe at last after
never advancing past the quarter-finals of the Champions League,
warmed up for Wednesday's match by losing 2-1 at strugglers
Nantes in Ligue 1 on Saturday.
That defeat left them with just one point from their last
three league outings and under threat from Olympique Marseille,
three points back in second place before visiting Lyon next
Sunday.
"One point from three games is really worrying but we only
have ourselves to blame for it," said Lyon midfielder Jeremy
Toulalan. "The Champions League, however, is a different story.
It's time for us to turn the page."
Probable teams:
Olympique Lyon: 1-Hugo Lloris; 32-Lamine Gassama, 28-Jeremy
Toulalan, 4-Jean-Alain Boumsong, 11-Fabio Grosso; 26-Fabio
Santos, 17-Jean Makoun, 6-Kim Kallstrom; 14-Sidney Govou,
7-Ederson; 9-Fred.
Bayern Munich: 1-Michael Rensing; 23-Massimo Oddo, 3-Lucio,
5-Daniel van Buyten, 21-Philipp Lahm; 31-Bastian Schweinsteiger,
17-Mark van Bommel, 7-Franck Ribery, 15-Ze Roberto; 9-Luca Toni,
18-Miroslav Klose.
Referee: Howard Webb (England)
(Additional reporting by Andre Assier and Karolos Grohmann,
editing by Justin Palmer)