Lyon wins again, but unconvincingly: 1-0 against Auxerre

Lyon won again last night 1-0 against fourteenth-placed Auxerre, but they were almost never threatened and beat out a victory on what could be called auto-pilot. Compared to the intensity of the last game against Real Madrid, Lyon could be said to have been sorely lacking. It was good that they had put themselves up 1-0 in the first half or I would have been squirming in my seat had it been a scoreless draw at the half.

The captain Juninho did admit that the game five days before in Real Madrid had drained the squad, and the fatigue is starting to show. Players are getting injured and others are less performing. Where Lyon was scoring two to three times a game, they now score barely one or two.

The Lyon coach was wise to start a few other players who had been on the sidelines over the last few crucial matches, not only to give these players some important match time but to also give his main footsoldiers time to lick their wounds.

Lyon goes into December with an astronomical 14-point lead over its second-place competitor. In the Ligue 1 soccer league, there are eight teams clustered around 24 to 26 points, far behind Lyon's 40 points. (Recall victory = 3 points, tie = 1 point, loss = 0 points. So four victories and two ties to catch up? Not going to be easy.)