Benzema buoyed by Lyon spirit
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Article summary
Olympique Lyonnais striker Karim Benzema hailed their "fantastic" team spirit after helping the French champions recover from a two-goal deficit for the second time in five days to earn a point against ACF Fiorentina.
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'Never gave up'
Again, though, it was Benzema who saved the day. Trailing to two Alberto Gilardino headers, the 20-year-old set up Frédéric Piquionne for Lyon's first on 73 minutes then crashed in the equaliser himself four minutes from time. "It feels more like a win than a draw," enthused the French international, who has already found the net six times this year. "We have a fantastic spirit at Lyon and we never gave up. It was the same against Nice on Saturday. We have this quality of never knowing when we are beaten."
Training routine
Benzema's leveller came after a cleverly-taken set-piece by Juninho Pernambucano. As the Fiorentina players braced themselves for another trademark curling effort from Lyon's captain, the Brazilian slipped a short pass through for Benzema who peeled off the defensive wall and applied a clinical finish. "It was something we had worked on in training," Benzema revealed. "Juninho had already taken quite a lot of free-kicks and was close to scoring. On this last one he decided to try and trick the Fiorentina players and it worked."
Bayern test
A draw at home may not represent an ideal start but the determination displayed by Lyon in the second half left Benzema confident for the remaining group games, with a trip to FC Bayern München looming in a fortnight. "It was really important not to lose today because we go to Bayern next and that will be very tough," he said. "Of course it would have been better to win. We had a few minutes to try to get a winning goal and gave everything we but it didn't go in."
Extra dimension
Fellow goalscorer Piquionne was equally upbeat, although he admitted he was getting "quite worried" as he watched the first half from the substitutes' bench. "We couldn't get a grip on the match," said the former AS Monaco FC striker, whose physical presence added an extra dimension when he entered the fray on 65 minutes. "Then when we did create something, there was always an excellent goalkeeper [Sébastien Frey] in our way. We never gave up, though. We tried to use the flanks to stretch them, and it paid off. It's hard to explain we started so poorly again, but what's encouraging is that the team sticks together."