French champions Lyon gave their Turkish counterparts Fenerbahce a mountain to climb with a deserved 3-1 victory in their Champions League group D encounter on Tuesday.
It took until early in the second half for the game to come alight, with Juninho beating Recber Rustu ten minutes after the restart before his Brazilian compatriot Cris beat the keeper from close range 10 minutes later.
Fenerbahce grabbed a deserved consolation through Marcio Nobre but the Turkish champions were ultimately outclassed on the night, with Lyon grabbing a third through Pierre-Alain Frau, four minutes from time.
In a relatively dull first-half the bulk of chances fell to Lyon, which early on saw midfielder Mickael Essien shoot low and wide from the edge of the penalty area with only Rustu to beat.
At the other end the shots on Gregory Coupet’s goal were few and far between — a fact that was not lost on their increasingly frustrated fans, many of whom began whistling.
On the 20th minute Sidney Govou offered Lyon an opening after running down the inside right to meet a ball threaded through by France teammate Sylvain Wiltord.
Govou panicked in the presence of a Fenerbahce defender and quickly unleashed a low 20-yard shot which trundled past Rustu’s right hand post.
Just after the half-hour mark Essien got his foot to a Govou cross but his effort was cleared.
Fenerbahce replied with a fierce volley from Sanli Tuncay whose shot from the edge of the area sailed a yard over Coupet’s crossbar.
A minute later Govou came close again.
Sitting deep but on-side he picked up the ball after it had sailed past two Fenerbahce heads. With Rustu off his goalline, Govou only had to lob the keeper but his weak effort was easily collected and the teams went in scoreless at the break.
Barely ten minutes after the restart Govou finally made the difference when he set up Juninho for their first goal, the Brazilian beating Rustu from 20 yards with a shot that ricocheted off the crossbar.
Lyon’s second chance came 11 minutes later before Fenerbahce, with their backs to the wall in group D and facing certain elimination, dug deep to grab a goal barely two minutes later.
Juninho was in the thick of Lyon’s action again, but this time the Brazilian sent in the corner which Mahamadou Diarra flicked on for Brazilian defender Cris, who beat the off-side trap to beat Rustu from close range.
Two minutes later the hosts gave their suffering fans a boost when Nobre dived low to head Tuncay’s cross past Coupet in the Lyon goal.
Fenerbahce rallied late, however their efforts were in vain.
Lyon upped the pace in the final ten mintes of play and after a neat sequence of passes Frau grabbed their third goal of the night to send Lyon to the top of the group on seven points. – Sapa-AFP