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Lyon hope home rule will see them through

Olympique Lyonnais will look to their formidable European home record this season as they bid to secure a first UEFA Champions League final place at the expense of FC Bayern München.

Lyon hope home rule will see them through
Lyon hope home rule will see them through ©UEFA.com

Olympique Lyonnais will look to their formidable European home record this season as they bid to overturn a 1-0 deficit and secure a first UEFA Champions League final place at the expense of FC Bayern München.

• Claude Puel's side are unbeaten at Stade de Gerland in Europe this season and, having won their last three UEFA Champions League home outings, will hope to make it four in a row against their German visitors.

• Finalists seven times previously, Bayern lost on their travels in the last two rounds of the competition but are now within touching distance of their first UEFA Champions League showpiece since 2001, when they last lifted the trophy.

• Arjen Robben scored the only goal in the 69th minute of an eventful first leg in Munich. Both teams finished proceedings with ten men after Bayern's Franck Ribéry was shown a straight red card in the 37th minute for a high tackle on Lisandro while Jérémy Toulalan collected two yellow cards early in the second half.

Previous meetings
• Before the first leg, the clubs had met six times in the UEFA Champions League over the past decade, recording two wins apiece.

• In the 2008/09 group stage, they drew 1-1 in Munich, Zé Roberto (52) cancelling out a Martín Demichelis own goal (25).

• Bayern secured first place in the section with a 3-2 win in Lyon on the final matchday that consigned their hosts to second. The Bavarian side raced into a three-goal lead through Miroslav Klose (11, 37) and Ribéry (34) before Sidney Govou (52) and Karim Benzema (68) narrowed the deficit.

• The full lineups for that meeting on 10 December 2008 were:
Lyon
: Lloris, Gassama (Källström 64), Mensah, Boumsong, Grosso, Toulalan, Makoun, Govou, Ederson (Delgado 77), Mounier (Fred 64), Benzema.
Bayern
: Rensing, Oddo (Breno 90), Demichelis, Van Buyten, Lahm, Van Bommel, Borowski, Schweinsteiger (Altıntop 89), Ribéry, Klose (Ottl 68), Toni.

• It was Lyon first and Bayern second when the teams met in the 2003/04 group stage. Then they drew 1-1 at Gerland – Péguy Luyindula's 88th-minute equaliser rescuing the hosts – before Lyon won 2-1 in Bavaria through a goal from Bayern old boy Giovane Elber.

• Demichelis featured for Bayern in those games with Anthony Réveillère and Govou in the Lyon side.

• The clubs first met in the 2000/01 second group stage, Jens Jeremies scoring the only goal in Munich in November 2000. Govou is the only survivor of that encounter, having appeared as an 81st-minute substitute.

• Govou hit two first-half goals to set up a 3-0 Lyon victory in the return fixture in France on 6 March 2001, but Bayern still advanced and went on to claim the trophy that year while Les Gones were eliminated.

Match background
• Lyon have never played in the final of a major European competition – the closest they got previously was the last four of the 1963/64 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, losing to Sporting Clube de Portugal after a replay.

• Bayern, by contrast, are competing in their 13th semi-final in Europe's elite club competition and aiming to qualify for their first final since they beat Valencia CF to win the UEFA Champions League in 2001 – when, as now, they overcame Manchester United FC in the quarter-finals.

• Four-times winners, Bayern's record in European Champion Clubs' Cup semi-finals is seven wins and five defeats:
2000/01 Real Madrid CF: 1-0 (a), 2-1 (h)
1999/00 Real Madrid CF: 0-2 (a), 2-1 (h)
1998/99 FC Dynamo Kyiv: 3-3 (a), 1-0 (h)
1994/95 AFC Ajax: 0-0 (h), 2-5 (a)
1990/91 FK Crvena Zvezda: 1-2 (h), 2-2 (a)
1989/90 AC Milan: 0-1 (a), 2-1 (h)
1986/87 Real Madrid CF: 4-1 (h), 0-1 (a)
1981/82 PFC CSKA Sofia: 3-4 (a), 4-0 (h)
1980/81 Liverpool FC: 0-0 (a), 1-1 (h)
1975/76 Real Madrid CF: 1-1 (a), 2-0 (h)
1974/75 AS Saint-Etienne: 0-0 (a), 2-0 (h)
1973/74 Újpest FC: 1-1 (a), 3-0 (h)

• Overall Bayern have contested 20 semi-finals in UEFA competition, winning nine and losing 11. Their most recent semi-final was against FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup when they drew 1-1 at home but lost 4-0 away.

• Lyon have been in fine form at Gerland this term, recording five wins and a draw in the UEFA Champions League – qualifying play-off included.

• Lyon's home record against teams from the Bundesliga is W6 D1 L3. In two-legged ties, their record is two wins and three defeats.

• Furthermore, the French club have overturned a first-leg away defeat only twice in UEFA competition while suffering six aggregate eliminations. That tally of overall losses includes both occasions where the French side lost 1-0 away first time round – a 6-2 aggregate defeat by Germany's VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 1974/75 UEFA Cup second round and a 1-0 overall loss in the third round of the same competition against Nottingham Forest FC in 1995/96.

• Bayern lost 2-1 at FC Girondins de Bordeaux – Lyon's victims in the quarter-finals – on their last visit to France in this season's group stage.

• Bayern's away record against Ligue 1 opposition is W3 D3 L6.

• They have won two out of three two-legged contests with French sides, most recently the 1995/96 UEFA Cup final against Bordeaux.

• Bayern recorded their third European Cup final victory by beating France's St-Etienne 1-0 in 1976, Franz Roth the scorer.

• The German club have won through in 38 of the 46 UEFA competition ties in which they have won the first leg at home. When winning 1-0 in Munich their record reads two aggregate wins and two defeats, however, those setbacks coming against FC Dynamo Kyiv in the 1976/77 European Cup quarter-final and Tottenham Hotspur FC in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup third round with both away legs lost 2-0.

• Bayern did progress after their most recent 1-0 home first-leg win, eliminating CF Os Belenenses from the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round with a 2-0 win in Portugal.

• Bayern coach Louis van Gaal is hoping to lead the German club to the UEFA Champions League 15 years after winning it with Ajax. Only Ernst Happel (Feyenoord 1970, Hamburger SV 1983) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (BV Borussia Dortmund 1997, Bayern 2001) have won the European Cup as coaches of two different clubs. FC Internazionale Milano's José Mourinho, a winner with FC Porto in 2004, is also attempting the feat this time round.

• Bayern feature two players in their squad with experience of a UEFA Champions League final. Mark van Bommel won the 2006 showpiece while at FC Barcelona and Hans-Jörg Butt was on the losing side with Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2002.

Team ties
• Van Gaal faced France's AJ Auxerre in the 1996/97 UEFA Champions League group stage while at Ajax. He oversaw a 1-0 win in France and a 2-1 home defeat.

• Klose has unhappy memories of facing Lyon – he was in the Werder Bremen side beaten 10-2 on aggregate by Les Gones in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League round of 16.

• Ribéry had mixed fortunes against Lyon in French football. He never got the better of them in Ligue 1, in one game with FC Metz and three while at Olympique de Marseille. But he did help eliminate them twice from the French Cup. In 2005/06, he set up Mamadou Niang's winner in a 2-1 quarter-final success at Gerland and the next season featured again as OM won 2-1 in a last-16 tie at Vélodrome.

• Daniel Van Buyten spent two and a half seasons at Marseille from 2001.

• Van Buyten, who did not manage a victory in five Ligue 1 outings against Lyon, scored against them in a 4-1 home defeat for Marseille in November 2003. Réveillère and Govou were in the opposition lineup.

• Butt faced Lyon with Leverkusen in the first group stage of the UEFA Champions League in 2001/02. While Leverkusen won 1-0 in France, Les Gones prevailed 4-2 in Germany with Govou among the scorers.

• Robben struck his first UEFA Champions League goal for PSV Eindhoven against Auxerre in a 3-0 home win on 30 October 2002. He also scored in the Netherlands' 4-1 defeat of France at UEFA EURO 2008. Lyon's Toulalan, Bafétimbi Gomis and Govou were in the France team along with Ribéry.

• Kim Källström was in the Sweden team beaten 2-0 by a Germany side including Klose, Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

• On 14 October last year David Alaba appeared as a substitute for Austria in a 3-1 World Cup qualifying defeat in France. Hugo Lloris, Govou and Gomis were in the opposition team.

• Lyon's penalty shoot-out record in UEFA club competitions is:
2-4 v PSV Eindhoven, 2004/05 UEFA Champions League quarter-final

• Bayern's record is:
5-4 v Valencia CF, 2000/01 UEFA Champions League final
9-8 v PAOK FC, 1983/84 UEFA Cup second round
4-3 v Åtvidaberg FF, 1973/74 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round

• The victorious team will advance to the final at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid on 22 May where they will play the winners of the Barcelona-Inter semi-final.

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