Madrid out to end French resistance

Real Madrid CF will hope to move a step closer to their dream of reaching this year's UEFA Champions League final at their Santiago Bernabéu home when they welcome Olympique Lyonnais for the second leg of their last-16 tie. The nine-times European champions have not reached the quarter-finals since 2004 but will hope to put that right by finally getting the better of opponents who avoided defeat on both of their previous two trips to the Spanish capital and travel defending a 1-0 lead thanks to Jean II Makoun's 47th-minute thunderbolt in the first leg.

Previous meetings
• The clubs first squared off in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage. Lyon defeated Madrid 3-0 at the Stade de Gerland before a 1-1 draw in the Spanish capital, John Carew (72) cancelling out Guti's goal (41) and securing first place in the group for the Ligue 1 side.

• The lineups for that meeting in Madrid on 23 November 2005 were:
Madrid: Casillas, Ramos, Pavón, Helguera, Roberto Carlos, Diogo, Pablo García, Beckham (Salgado 80), Zidane (Baptista 76), Guti, Robinho.
Lyon: Coupet, Réveillère, Cris, Caçapa, Monsoreau (Fred 70), Tiago, Mahamadou Diarra, Juninho (Clément 90+3), Govou (Wiltord 69), Carew, Malouda.

• Lyon again claimed top spot in their group with a draw at the Bernabéu in 2006/07. After a 2-0 home victory against Los Merengues in September 2006, they drew 2-2 in Madrid on 21 November that year despite letting slip a two-goal lead. Mahamadou Diarra (39) – playing against his old club – and Ruud van Nistelroy (83) restored parity after Carew (11) and Malouda (31) had struck, Grégory Coupet then saving a last-minute Van Nistelrooy penalty to secure Lyon a point.

• The lineups were:
Madrid: Casillas, Ramos, Helguera, Cannavaro, Roberto Carlos, Emerson (Cassano 76), Mahamadou Diarra, Guti, Robinho, Van Nistelrooy, Raúl.
Lyon: Coupet, Réveillère, Cris, Squillaci, Abidal, Toulalan (Alou Diarra 90+2), Tiago, Juninho, Clerc, Carew, Malouda.

Match background
• Madrid have already beaten one Ligue 1 team at the Santiago Bernabéu this term, registering a 3-0 success against Olympique de Marseille in the group stage.

• However, the Spanish side have lost their last three two-legged contests with Ligue 1 opposition, going down on away goals to AS Monaco FC in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals and losing to Paris Saint-Germain FC in the last eight of both the 1992/93 UEFA Cup and the 1993/94 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

• Lyon have fallen at this stage in each of the past three campaigns, losing 6-3 to FC Barcelona 12 months ago after a 1-1 home draw was followed by a 5-2 defeat in Catalonia.

• Their only win in seven attempts in Spain came at this stage of the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League when a 1-0 first-leg success at Real Sociedad de Fútbol, courtesy of Gabriel Schürrer's own goal, set them on the way to a 2-0 aggregate victory.

• Sidney Govou is the only survivor of the Lyon team that won in San Sebastian. Rémy Vercoutre watched from the bench.

• Lyon have won three out of four away games in this season's UEFA Champions League.

• Madrid won the first of their nine European Champion Clubs' Cups by beating French club Stade de Reims Champagne 4-3 in the competition's inaugural final in 1955/56. They defeated the same opponents 2-0 three years later to claim a fourth successive crown.

• History provides Madrid with plenty of cause for optimism, the Spanish club having overturned a first-leg deficit at the Santiago Bernabéu on 20 previous occasions in UEFA competition, most recently against FC Bayern München in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals (1-2 away, 2-0 home). They have been eliminated 11 times after losing the away leg, however, including at this stage of the competition in 2007/08 with a pair of 2-1 losses to AS Roma.

• Lyon have won the first leg at home 11 times in UEFA competition and failed to progress only once, against Werder Bremen in the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup third round (3-0 home, 0-4 away). The most recent of Lyon's ten aggregate wins came in this season's play-off round against RSC Anderlecht (5-1 home, 3-1 away).

Team ties
• Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini got the better of his Lyon counterpart Claude Puel when they met in the UEFA Champions League in the 2005/06 group stage.

• Pellegrini's Villarreal CF earned a goalless draw at Puel's LOSC Lille Métropole before a 1-0 home win earned Villarreal progress as group winners and eliminated Lille.

• Puel has had little joy against Spanish sides, suffering a 4-2 aggregate defeat by RCD Mallorca in the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup fourth round while at Monaco. With Lille he enjoyed a 1-0 win against Sevilla FC in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup group stage but suffered a round of 16 elimination by the same opponents in the 2005/06 edition.

• The Lyon coach lost against Spanish opposition in his first ever European tie as a player. His Monaco team went down 2-0 at Valencia CF in the 1980/81 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round, before a 3-3 second-leg draw. Nine years later Puel was in the Monaco side that beat Real Valladolid CF on penalties after a 0-0 aggregate draw in the quarter-finals of the same competition.

• A product of the Lyon academy, Benzema spent five seasons in the club's first team, making 112 league appearances and scoring 43 goals. He helped Lyon win four league titles and finished the 20-goal top scorer in Ligue 1 in 2007/08.

• Benzema's fellow Lyon old boy Mahamadou Diarra made 121 appearances for the club between 2002 and 2006 before leaving for the Santiago Bernabéu.

• Madrid's French internationals Benzema and Lassana Diarra could line up against several national-team colleagues in the Lyon squad. Likewise, Madrid duo Gonzalo Higuaín and Fernando Gago may face Lyon's Argentinian international Lisandro while Madrid's Kaká and Marcelo are team-mates with Michel Bastos and Cris for Brazil.

• Higuaín has French citizenship having been born in Brest when his father Jorge, also a professional footballer, was playing for Stade Brestois 29.

• Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo have both helped eliminate Lyon from the UEFA Champions League. The former was in the AC Milan side that beat Lyon in the 2005/06 quarter-finals, while Ronaldo scored the only goal when Manchester United FC recorded a home win against Lyon in the last 16 in 2007/08 to complete a 2-1 aggregate success.

• Govou was in the France side that overcame a Spain team featuring Madrid's Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso and Raúl González in the last 16 of the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals.

• Casillas, Raúl Albiol and Sergio Ramos helped Spain gain a measure of revenge with a 1-0 friendly win against a France featuring Lyon midfielder Jérémy Toulalan and Madrid's Lassana Diarra in February 2008.

• Kim Källström appeared as a late substitute in Sweden's 2-1 loss to a Spain side including Casillas, Ramos and Albiol at UEFA EURO 2008.

• Rafael van der Vaart came off the bench to score for AFC Ajax in a 2-0 win at Lyon in the UEFA Champions League group stage in October 2002. He also featured as a substitute in the Netherlands' 4-1 victory against France at UEFA EURO 2008.