Squad list for Lyon:

Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Apam, Diakité, Hognon, Jeunechamp, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Sablé, Traoré
Attaquants: Adeilson, Bamogo, Ben Saada, Rémy
Choix de l’entraîneur: Barul, Moussilou, Ozokwo, J.Moreau, Modeste, Mouloungui, Cid, K.Adu, Quansah

As promised, Antonetti is ringing the changes (as much as he can, without a particularly large squad): Modeste and Mouloungui have been left out entirely, and in his meeting with the press yesterday, Anto made pretty strong hints at both Ben Saada (Hooray!) and Adeilson, the latter perhaps not from the start but definitely likely to figure as a sub.

Before the match, Eder and Lloris will reportedly both be getting bouquets and much love; fingers crossed that after that they’ll at least have to work for the joy.

Many streams — oh, the power of Lyon — are here.

Gardiens: Moreau, Ospina
Défenseurs: Apam, Cid, Diakité, Hognon, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Jeunechamp, Traoré
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Rémy

Absents: Letizi, Ozokwo (blessés), Adu, Barul, Gace, Moussilou, Quansah (choix de l’entraîneur)

* * *

Sorry I’ve not been around this week — travel, family and Thanksgiving seriously cut into my interwebs time, so I’m way behind. What I do know, though, is that Letizi’s got some sort of abdominal problem, so Ospina will make his third L1 start tomorrow. And Grenoble won’t make life easy for him — they’ve got the fourth-best away record in the league and, were it not for their dire home record, would be a lot higher in the table. Definitely not a team to be taken lightly.

I’ve got to get back to grind of eating, but I’ll be back with a match report early next week, if not before. Until then, here’s an article about all Nice’s old people that, somewhat factiously, points out that there are two similarities between Nice and Milan: They both wear red and black, and both also rely heavily on the aged. (Oh, and both teams are second in the table. That’s a bonus similarity.) Additionally, there’s a nice (ha ha) article at UEFA.com about the team that sort of sums up the season thus far, celebrating the new additions and throwing some love the way of Chouf and Cyril #1.

For the first time since Frédéric Antonetti was a svelt 20-year-old, he’s got a full squad to choose from: No suspension, no injuries, no personal crises, no nothing. Everyone is fit and ready to go — what luxury!

Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Apam, Cid, Diakité, Hognon, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Jeunechamp, Traoré
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Rémy

Absents: Adu, Barul, Gace, Moreau, Moussilou, Ozokwo, Quansah (choix de l’entraîneur)

One assumes we’ll see Rémy from the start in place of Modeste, but apart from that change, the rest of the team could well be as it was against Nantes. Unless, that is, Antonetti wants to go crazy and play Ben Saada in behind a front two of Mouloungui and Rémy. (Yeah, I know. That’s why I’m not in charge.) It’s also possible that Apam could be rested — he played all 90 minutes against Colombia at midweek, and just arrived back in Nice yesterday.

For their part, ASSE are having huge injury problems in their defense, so much so that they’ve got only three first-team players fit, and could well start someone from the youth squad in the back. And, injury problems notwithstanding, Saint-Etienne are seriously struggling — they’ve lost six in a row, and have given up 16 goals against only two scored during those matches. It’s been a truly horrific run, but they’re at home, playing under a new coach there for the first time, and will doubtless be desperate to turn things around in front of their supporters.

In other words, it’s just the sort of match that can spell doom for high-flying opponents who come in feeling a little too good about themselves. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m nervous as hell.

I was reading — by which I mean “looking at the charts and the pictures” — La Gazzetta dello Sport this morning, and they had a piece comparing the top clubs in all the major European leagues, in which the top of each table was included. And Nice were there! For some reason, seeing that in a foreign paper (you can tell it’s from Gazzetta because it’s pink) rather than on French websites made it much more real.

And, in news about which no one but me really cares, I finally finished downloading the Lorient match, just in time for the Créteil game. Despite how much falling behind upsets my OCD tendencies, I’m still going to watch it, and hopefully will have a report that goes beyond “Apam was awesome! Letizi made saves!” up tomorrow.

Until then, here’s the squad for today:

Gardiens: Moreau, Ospina
Défenseurs: Apam, Cid, Diakité, Hognon, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Jeunechamp
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Ozokwo, Quansah
Absents: Coulibaly, Traoré, Rémy (blessés), Adu, Barul, Gace, Letizi, Moussilou (choix de l’entraîneur)

Vincent Hognon is wary of Créteil because they will be “quite disinhibited” going into a match they’re supposed to lose, but he’s fired up any way and hopes he’ll be in the team. Créteil, meanwhile, who have one win and two losses in the Championnat National this season, with a mind-blowing 11 draws — are poised to pull a massive upset — I don’t know about anyone else, but after what happened to Villarreal in their last cup match, I’m not taking anyone lightly. Not surprisingly, Antonetti isn’t, either — there’s been scouting and studying of tape, and constant reminding of his team not to underestimate their opponents. Hopefully it’ll all have gotten through to whoever he puts out there today — he’s promising a lot of changes from Saturday’s team, from the goalkeeper on out. Maybe we’ll even get to see Quansah, depending on how things go.

Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Apam, Diakité, Gace, Hognon, Jeunechamp, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Traoré
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Rémy

Absents: Cid (17 stitches in his head), Adu, Asamoah, Barul, Moreau, Moussilou, Ozokwo (choix de l’entraîneur)

* * *

So, word on the street — by which I mean the big French football papers — is that, after spending the week thinking hard and carefully examining all his keepers, Antonetti’s decided to go with Ospina tomorrow against Bordeaux. Awesome.

The kid performed impressively under immense pressure last weekend, and gave the eagerly optimistic among us no reason to throw out our hopes that the club my just have found a worthy successor to Lloris. Plus, ability aside, Opsina has a great attitude, his French is improving, and he’s reportedly hugely popular with his teammates (something which, amazingly, started before he spoke any French at all); he’s got all the easy stuff covered and, if Antonetti is ready to go with him again, it’s safe to assume the footballing part is there, too. (Even if Ospina does play, though, the gaffer wants us to know that it doesn’t mean he’s first choice for good quite yet. So, you know, no counting chickens yet and all that.)

* * *

Other news from this week:

•Needless to say, since there’s a match going on, the strike isn’t happening. That’s nice.

•Diakité and (of course) Cyril #1 are both at their card limits and will miss the midweek match at Caen. Additionally, the club have been fined €1000 for scofflaw supporters who used fireworks at Monaco. (That amount, by the way, is 100 times, give or take, what Spanish clubs get fined for throwing things on the pitch. At least Ligue 1 makes clubs suffer a little for fan behavior.)

•Derek Asamoah, who has been with the reserves since the start of the season, has had his contract terminated by mutual agreement. It actually happened last week, but (from what I’ve seen, anyway), the news just came out this week.

•Meanwhile, Apam’s agent is telling the press that his client’s contract has been extended for one more year, tying Apam to the club until 2013. Nice, however, have not confirmed this yet, so I have no idea if this is Apam’s agent just stirring, or what’s going on.

•And, finally, Raymond Domenech assistant Alain Boghossian will be at the Ray tomorrow, eying up players for the NT (Like, perhaps, The Next Zizou — For Real This Time!). No pressure, Rémy. Just breathe.

Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Cid, Diakité, Gace, Hognon, Jeunechamp, Kanté
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Ozokwo, Rémy
Absents: Apam, Traoré (blessés), Rool (suspendu), Asamoah, Barul, Moreau, Moussilou (choix de l’entraîneur)

Ok, I have a question. Cyril #1 gets a one-game suspension for the red card against Lyon, that I get. But why are Faé and Bamogo, both of whom have suspensions to serve due to accumulated yellows, available? Even more befuddling (to me, anyway), the Nice site says they’re serving the suspensions during the Cup match against Boulogne next week. What? How? And if you can just serve suspensions whenever the hell you want, why is Rool missing tomorrow, rather than Boulogne?

Right. Moving on. With Apam and Cyril #1 both out, the defense will presumably look like it did during the Olympics, with Hognon and Cyril #2 taking their places. (Given the team’s results during those matches, is much less scary than playing without two defensive starters would otherwise seem.) In the midfield, it’s disappointing not to have gotten Traoré back yet; even though Mouloungui will probably take his place again, I’m going to keep putting Ben Saada in my lineup in the hope that Antonetti happens by before the match. So, with those absences, this is what we’ve got, probably:

Letizi
Diakité-Hognon-Kanté-Jeunechamp
Echouafni
Fae-Hellebuyck
Bamogo-Ben Saada
Remy

Nice will be happy to be home after last weekend’s heartbreak, and are yet to drop a point at the Fortress Ray this season. (Don’t talk to me about it only being two matches, dammit, facts are facts!) But Le Mans are money on the road, where they’ve picked up two of their three wins and have scored seven goals in two matches, so if Nice allow themselves to spent a minute or two admiring their surroundings and thinking about home cooking, they could well end up with a mountain to climb. Not, of course, that I expect such a thing to happen.

Given the events of last weekend and the indignation of Nice fans, support should be noisy and numerous tomorrow and, though they’ve of course officially gotten over Lyon, it’s safe to assume the team will be fired up to come out and prove their worth. (Hopefully the eagerness will result in attractive, attacking football, and not ill-timed tackles and buckets of cards.)

Hey, if the MP who raised the Lyon-Nice match in the general assembly last week thinks it’ll be a Nice win, who are we to argue?

[Photo by LSN]

Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Cid, Diakité, Gace, Hognon, Kanté, Rool
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck
Attaquants: Bamogo, Ben Saada, Modeste, Mouloungui, Rémy

Absents: Apam, Moreau, Traoré (blessés), Jeunechamp (suspendu), Asamoah, Barul, Moussilou, Ozokwo (choix de l’entraîneur)

Read ‘em and weep, kids: No Apam. Yikes. I realize the team were without him for the first three matches this season and coped fairly well, but this is Lyon, Yahia is gone, and last time we saw Hognon on the pitch he was clearly not healthy. I repeat: YIKES.

Traoré, too, is out, but at least he and Ben Saada time their injuries considerately, and so far have managed not to be broken at the same time. Dare we be optimistic and see tomorrow as Ben Saada’s big breakout game for Nice? No, you’re right — optimism is never a good idea.

Anyway, best guess at as starting XI:

Letizi
Diakité-Hognon-Kanté-Rool
Echouafni
Fae-Hellebuyck
Bamogo-Ben Saada
Remy

I suppose we could see Coulibaly for Ben Saada, but I hope not. Ben Saada’s been cursed so far and hasn’t managed to make it through a full match without breaking, but his vision is fantastic, and he’s never going to turn into Nice’s mythical new #10 without being given the chance to work his magic in big matches.

Lyon have been flat for the past couple rounds, and are without Grosso and Clerc. Hey, every little bit helps, right? On the other hand, of course, one Hugo Lloris hasn’t give up a goal yet this season, which is an astonishing statistic no matter who they’re playing. (Check over at the Lyon blog for a detailed preview later today, I’m sure Inara and John will hook us up with all the scary info we need.)

Nice got two points from Lyon last season in two scoreless draws, playing without Ederson in the home leg because he Belonged to Them already and wasn’t allowed to kick their asses one last time. That fact, combined with Lyon’s recent form, the importance of this match for Nice — facing their friends and former teammates for the first time, and the mind-boggling possibility of moving into first with a win — and Rémy’s desperate desire to show Lyon what he’s worth makes it hard to be entirely pessimistic going into the match.

Emerse Fae thinks it’ll be 2-1 to Nice. Me? I’ll pray for a miracle win but will weep with joy at a draw.

ADDED Sunday: Stream here.

Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Cid, Diakité, Gace, Kanté, Jeunechamp, Yahia
Milieux: Coulibaly, Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Traoré
Attaquants: Bamogo, Modeste, Ozokwo, Rémy

Absents: Ben Saada, Hognon, Rool (blessés), Apam (sélection), Mouloungui (deuil familial), Asamoah, Barul, Job, Moreau, Moussilou (choix de l’entraîneur)

Apparently Hognon’s leg is bad enough to rule him out even before a late fitness test, which means the defense is now without two regulars and its most reliable replacement. Man alive — Letizi better have one of his supremely competent days.

So, the team is likely to look the the way it did at Le Havre, except with Yahia (presumably preferred over Cid, based on Antonetti’s use of him when Hognon went down against Nancy) in place of Hognon:

Letizi
Diakité-Yahia-Kanté-Jeunechamp
Echouafni
Fae-Hellebuyck
Bamogo-Traore
Remy

It’s also thought that Coulibaly, whose training sessions with the team you can count on one hand, will probably play a part in the midfield, presumably coming off the bench.

Given Auxerre’s 0-4 thrashing at Marseille last week (a scoreline that is possibly even more galling because it evidently didn’t justly reflect how the visitors played) and Nice’s perpetual struggles on the road, I’ve got a bad feeling about this one, particularly in light of the hobbled defense Antonetti’s being forced to use. That said, Auxerre just sent Romanian CB Gabriel Tamas out on loan for the rest of the season and are without Jeremy Berthod through injury, so their defense might be a bit out of sorts, too. If Nice can just get through this weekend with a point, things will start to get better at the back — an exhausted Apam will be home by the time training starts next week, and Cyril #1 and Hognon could return to face Valenciennes.

* * *

In quick, non-preview news:

•Apam played every minute of every match for Nigeria at the Olympics, playing at the heart of a defense that gave up only four goals over six matches, and is coming back to Nice with a silver medal. Congratulations to him, it’s an amazing accomplishment.

•For you French-speakers, there’s a short Rémy video piece at L’Equipe, featuring his impossibly long legs and an interview segment.

•Laslandes to OM? God, they’re taking him, too?! (Not that Nice have shown any interesting in him since telling him to be patient, but still. It’s the principle of the thing!)

•According to the Israel media, the latest name on Nice’s lips in the continuing quest for an attacker is that of Genk’s Israeli international Elianiv Barda, whose price is apparently around €4 million. Now, if this was from a Romanian sports paper, I’d feel comfortable declaring the story entirely made up, but I don’t know a thing about the reliability of the Israeli sports press and can’t give an opinion either way. Anyone?

Gardiens: Letizi, Ospina
Défenseurs: Cid, Diakité, Gace, Hognon, Kanté, Jeunechamp, Yahia
Milieux: Echouafni, Faé, Hellebuyck, Traoré
Attaquants: Bamogo, Modeste, Mouloungui, Ozokwo, Rémy
Absents: Ben Saada, Rool (injury), Apam, Coulibaly (Olympics), Asamoah, Barul, Job, Moreau, Moussilou (choix de l’entraîneur)

Despite having just returned to training this week, Mouloungui is in the team and could well play a part tomorrow, while Ben Saada and Cyril #1 are both out, probably for the first of at least two matches: Ben Saada’s ankle is expected to keep him out for up to two weeks, while Rool’s torn calf will take two or three weeks to heal. Since those two are the only ones who were going to force changes in the lineup and Kanté’s recovered from an ankle knock, Antonetti will probably go with the same XI he started against Le Havre:

Letizi
Diakité-Hognan-Kanté-Jeunechamp
Echouafni
Fae-Hellebuyck
Bamogo-Traore
Remy

For their part, Nancy should be near full strength, with Berenguer and Calvé back from suspension, Brison back from injury and keeper Bracigliano having recovered from his own injury scare. They’re still without long-term casualties Biancalani and Adjet, both of whom have hamstring problems.

I’m crap at predictions and will probably never make one, but despite their top four finish, Nancy failed to score against Nice last season (0-0 and 1-0 to Nice), which is something to which we can cling — let’s hope that continues for one more matchday. (Yes, I know Lloris is gone, and that Rool and Apam are missing. Quiet.) For morale reasons — both his own and the team’s — it’d certainly be encouraging to see Rémy get off the mark tomorrow, and a win would be really nice, given the looming questions about the attack (and the keeper), and keeping in mind how shorthanded the team are right now.

*Photo by LSN.