Olympique Lyon 1 - Valencia 2

Valencia: Cañizares; Anglomá, Djukic, Pellegrino, Carboni; Mendieta (Angulo 62'), Baraja, Zahovic (Albelda 70'), Kily González;Juan Sánchez, Carew (Diego Alonso 80'). 4-4-2.

Goals: 0-1.
45. Sánchez. In front of goal after Carew headed over Carboni's cross.
0-2. 86. Baraja. Controlled Albelda's through ball, rounded keeper and scored.
1-2. 90. Marlet. Beat Angloma to head Anderson's cross past keeper.

Valencia joined Real Madrid in the next phase of the Champions League with their fourth victory in a row, the only team out of the 32 participants to win all their games to date. Their opponents Olympique Lyon proved a tough nut to crack though, and if not for a couple of spectacular saves by Cañizares in the first half they could have found themselves behind by half time. As it was they went in front, with this season's revelation, Juan Sánchez, getting his seventh of the season, and his first in the Champions League. It was the luck of the champions in more ways than one, with Carew headed Carboni's cross over the French defence and into the striker's path for him to beat the keeper with a half hit shot which bounced into the ground and over keeper Coupet.

Lyon were going in hard, especially on Mendieta, and Héctor Cúper eventually pulled his captain off to save him from further damage after a crunching tackle from Foe which earned him a yellow card. Mendieta himself had been given a yellow card a few minutes earlier for retaliating, and he will miss their next match against Olympiakos. A couple of minutes after he left the field, Foe got his marching orders from referee Paul Durkin for another silly tackle, and with their opponents down to ten men, Valencia almost wrapped up the match when Carew shot just wide after a good cross from Sánchez on the right.

With four minutes to go, Valencia's best man on the night Baraja beat the offside trap to control Albelda's long pass and round the keeper for the second, and the game appeared to be over. However Marlet got one back, and when Durkin added five minutes more at the end the Valencia supporters held their breaths. However Valencia have the best defence in the Champions League, having only let in two goals (including Marlet's) in their four games, and there was no further danger. Valencia top group C with twelve points, and with Olympiakos and Olympique Lyon on six and Heerenveen on three, another point will see them group champions. They will probably go for it as Cúper knows no other way, but losing next week in the always difficult Olympiakos stadium would be no big deal. With a good start in the Spanish league to protect, the manager may well use some of his reserves for that match. They deserve the rest.