Puel, Blanc downplay French football power struggle hype

Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc and Lyon counterpart Claude Puel have dismissed suggestions that the balance of power in French football is at stake in their Champions League quarter-final.

Blanc’s team, who face Puel’s side in the first leg here on Tuesday, ended seven years of domestic domination by Lyon last season when they won the French championship for the first time since 1999.

They are well placed to repeat the trick this year as well, leading Ligue 1 with 10 games to play and two matches in hand.

Their clash with Lyon, the first between two French clubs at this stage of the Champions League, has been billed as an opportunity for Bordeaux to replace their opponents as the pre-eminent force in French football.

Blanc, though, is keen to claim underdog status for his side.

“There’s no supremacy at stake,” he said in his pre-match press conference here on Monday.

“Lyon are clearly superior to us. What Lyon have done over the last eight or 10 years is exceptional.

“Everyone tries to shrug off the favourites tag but at a European level there is no comparison between the Girondins and Lyon, for now.”

Puel echoed Blanc’s sentiments by insisting that his charges were focusing purely on their objective of reaching the semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history.

“It’s really the possibility of getting to the semis that’s important,” said the former Lille boss.

“The squad are more focused on this than the fact we’re facing Bordeaux.”

Tuesday’s encounter at Lyon’s Stade Gerland will contain few surprises for the players on either side, but Blanc says his team cannot afford to lose their focus for a second.

“The big advantage is that two teams know each other very well and we’re not expecting any big surprises with the tactics or the shape of the team,” said the former France centre-back.

“The first leg away from home is important. I said so before the match in Greece against Olympiakos (in the previous round).

“We’ll have to put in a big performance against an opponent that knocked out Real Madrid.”

Bordeaux won 1-0 when the sides last met in the league in December but Blanc insists the European game will be approached differently.

“We can anticipate their tactics a bit, but the Champions League is a different competition,” he said.

“There will be a result and a second leg. In the big European matches, in the first 15 to 20 minutes, everyone has a duel to win to mark his territory before the game can unfold.”

Bordeaux go into the match on the back of a spiky and combative 3-1 defeat to Marseille in Saturday’s League Cup final and Puel believes the stricter standard of officiating in Europe’s top club competition means a similar level of physicality will not be tolerated.

“We’re in a European confrontation with a German referee (Felix Brych) who will control things well,” said the Lyon boss.

“We might find ourselves in a game that’s a bit less full-blooded than the battles we saw in the final of the League Cup.”

Turning to the match, Puel said he would be pleased to take a one-goal lead to the Stade Chaban-Delmas next week.

Asked for his ideal result, he responded: “A 1-0 victory, like against Real in the first leg of the round of 16, or even 2-0 or 2-1.”