Team news

Garde shifts focus Lyon coach Remi Garde hopes the Champions League will provide a welcome distraction from his side's Ligue 1 travails after Saturday's dismal defeat to Caen.

Les Gones are fourth in the league but their eighth defeat of the season left them 11 points adrift of leaders Paris St Germain and Garde joined club president Jean-Michel Aulas in demanding an immediate response against APOEL Nicosia.

"We have eight defeats in the league, which is far too many," Garde told olweb.fr.

"We have a difficult meeting with APOEL. When you play often you have to find a way to lift yourself, I hope that the Champions League can help us do that." Aulas was stronger in his condemnation, adding: "We have to take a look at ourselves and work out what we did wrong before the Champions League match.

"You have to react when you lose at home to the team 16th in the league." Dejan Lovren and Anthony Lopes are sidelined by injury but goalkeeper Remy Vercoutre, who was an unused substitute against Caen after returning from injury, has been added to the European squad along with loan signing Hamdan Al Kamali in place of the departed Lamine Gassama and Ishak Belfodil.

APOEL have added Helder Sousa to their party after his arrival from Olympiakos Nicosia, with Sanel Jahic and Tijani Belaid having left the club during the winter transfer window.

William Boaventura is available after missing Friday's win over Ethnikos Achnas due to a domestic suspension, which should mean Nuno Morais can return to his favoured midfield role.

Gustavo Manduca returned from a hamstring injury in that game but Paulo Jorge, Oliviera and Adorno remained on the sidelines.

Captain Constantinos Charalambides, who signed a new three-and-a-half-year deal in January, is relishing the opportunity for another upset in his side's impressive European campaign, which saw them top a group containing Zenit St Petersburg, Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk to become the first Cypriot team to reach the knockout stages.

He told uefa.com: "We knew that whichever team we faced would be difficult, and have a Champions League history.

"They (Lyon) are clearly a bigger club than us with a much bigger budget and better footballers but that doesn't mean anything as we have shown that a small team can reach the knockout stage of the competition and do just as well in this next stage.

Lyon vs Apoel Nicosia

Last modified 22:12 14/02/12

Narrow advantage for Lyon Alexandre Lacazette's deflected goal gave Lyon a much-needed 1-0 win in the first leg of their Champions League clash with APOEL Nicosia.

APOEL, the first Cypriot side to reach the last 16, showed no attacking intent - they did not have a shot until the 88th minute - and looked for much of the match like they might hang on.

But Lacazette struck after 58 minutes to give some relief to Lyon, whose poor domestic form has seen them slip 11 points adrift of leaders Paris St Germain in Ligue 1.

Lyon had a decent penalty shout after two minutes when Ederson appeared to be eased out of the way by Nuno Morais, but Italian referee Paolo Tagliavento waved play on.

For all Lyon's possession they were struggling to create chances, and their first real opportunity came after 24 minutes when, following good work from Lisandro Lopez, the ball broke in the area to Anthony Reveillere whose shot was blocked.

Lisandro then saw his low shot held by Dionissis Chiotis diving low to his right, before Lacazette cut in from the right well but hammered a good chance over the bar.

Five minutes before the break Lyon had their best effort of the half. Ederson's slide-rule pass was cut out by Ivan Trickovski but the ball broke to Lacazette, whose strike from the edge of the box was turned over by Chiotis.

Lisandro then fired over from a narrow angle.

Barely two minutes into the second period, Michel Bastos produced a lovely pass for Ederson, who rounded the keeper and slid the ball towards goal only for Paulo Jorge to slide in and clear at the very last moment.

Lyon finally took the lead after 58 minutes when Cris played the ball down the left channel for Lacazette, who cut inside before unleashing a shot which deflected off Jorge and looped over Chiotis.

With two minutes to play, APOEL finally had their first attempt of the match as Gustavo Manduca, on as a late substitute, cut in from the right and fired at goal but Hugo Lloris was alert to the danger and turned the ball over.