French eyes focused on Gerland

The UEFA Champions League has its first all-French encounter when Olympique Lyonnais and FC Girondins de Bordeaux square off in the quarter-finals.

• Bordeaux broke Lyon's seven-year stranglehold at the top of Ligue 1 last season and are now aiming to destroy Les Gones' dream of reaching a first UEFA Champions League semi-final.

• There will be cause for confidence in both camps going into this first leg: Lyon are unbeaten at home in the competition this season and defeated Real Madrid CF in the last round, while Bordeaux are the UEFA Champions League's form team with seven successive victories.

Previous meetings
• The teams have already met in Lyon in Ligue 1 this term, Marouane Chamakh's 86th-minute header earning Bordeaux a 1-0 victory on 13 December.

• Bordeaux won the clubs' first league meeting in Lyon by the same score on 11 February 1952. The pair's overall head-to-head record in the French top flight could hardly be closer: Bordeaux have 32 wins and Lyon 31 with 26 draws. The record between them at the Stade de Gerland is 21 wins for Lyon, 12 for Bordeaux and 12 draws.

• Lyon's most emphatic home victory against Bordeaux, a 5-1 win on 15 May 2005, secured a fourth successive league title. Cris and Sidney Govou both scored twice.

• In the French Cup, Néstor Combin struck twice as Lyon defeated Bordeaux 2-0 in the 1964 final. In 1972/73 Lyon prevailed 4-3 on aggregate (3-0 at home, 1-3 away) in the last 16 en route to winning the trophy again.

• Bordeaux have won two of the clubs' three French League Cup meetings, notably in the 2007 final decided by Henrique's 89th-minute header.

• Les Marine et Blanc defeated Lyon 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the last 16 of the 2001/02 competition, which they eventually won. That avenged a 1-0 win for Lyon at the same stage in 2000.

Match background
• Lyon have a strong home record in this season's UEFA Champions League. Including the 5-1 qualifying round win against RSC Anderlecht, they have collected four wins and a draw from five games. The Group E runners-up claimed the scalp of Real Madrid in the first knockout round by prevailing 1-0 at home, then drawing 1-1 in Spain.

• Lyon are seeking their first appearance in the last four of the UEFA Champions League having fallen at this hurdle three times previously – in 2003/04, 2004/05 and 2005/06.

• Bordeaux's UEFA Champions League away form has been impressive with three wins and a draw from four games.

• Indeed their overall efforts in reaching the quarter-finals have been eye-catching. From the group stage onwards, the French titleholders have won more matches (seven) than any other club and share with FC Barcelona the highest number of clean sheets (five).

• This is Bordeaux's first quarter-final in Europe's elite club competition since the 1980s. In 1984/85 they defeated FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate draw to reach their only semi-final, where they suffered an overall 3-2 reverse against eventual champions Juventus.

• Les Girondins returned to the last eight in 1987/88, but went out on away goals after a 1-1 aggregate draw against a PSV Eindhoven side who went on to win the trophy.

• In the intervening years Bordeaux have contested three UEFA Cup quarter-finals, most recently in 2003/04 when again they lost to the winners that year, Valencia CF.

• While this is Bordeaux's first European tie against a compatriot club, Lyon beat Montpellier Hérault SC home (3-2) and away (1-0) in the 1997 UEFA Intertoto Cup final.

Team ties
• Puel has faced French opposition before in Europe. His previous experience as a coach came with LOSC Lille Métropole in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup when Les Dogues went down 1-0 on aggregate to AJ Auxerre in the round of 16, paying the price for a narrow first-leg home loss. Jean II Makoun and Mathieu Bodmer were in Lille's squad alongside Matthieu Chalmé. Another Bordeaux player, Michaël Ciani, featured for the opposition.

• Blanc was captain of the Olympique de Marseille team that defeated AS Monaco FC in the third round of the 1998/99 UEFA Cup. Puel was then an assistant of Monaco coach Jean Tigana, whom he replaced at the helm soon after.

• Puel coached Franck Jurietti at Monaco during 2000/01.

• Lyon's Govou, Hugo Lloris, Anthony Réveillère and Jérémy Toulalan are colleagues of Bordeaux's Cédric Carasso, Ciani, Alou Diarra and Yoann Gourcuff in the France national squad.

• Bordeaux captain Diarra spent the 2006/07 season with Lyon, making 15 Ligue 1 appearances and scoring one goal.

• Brazilian internationals Cris and Michel Bastos will face countrymen Fernando, Henrique, Jussiê and Wendel.

• There is also an Argentinian connection between the squads with Lisandro and César Delgado up against compatriots Fernando Cavenaghi and Diego Placente.

• Ederson and Hugo Lloris were formerly team-mates of David Bellion at OGC Nice, while Kim Källström and Gourcuff played together at Stade Rennais FC. Bodmer and Yoan Gouffran were in the same SM Caen squad in 2002/03, although they never played together.

• Bernard Lacombe, Les Gones' presidential adviser and a former French international striker, played for both Lyon (1969-78) and Bordeaux (1979-87).

• France coach Raymond Domenech has also played for both sides. He won the French Cup with hometown club Lyon in 1973 and the French title with Bordeaux in 1984.

• The second leg takes place on 7 April. The victors will meet the winner of the quarter-final between FC Bayern München and Manchester United FC in the last four.