Coupet undaunted by United test

"Results aren't always logical in football." This is the view of Olympique Lyonnais goalkeeper Grégory Coupet ahead of Tuesday's UEFA Champions League visit to Old Trafford – and fans of the French champions will hope he is proved right given the way the odds appear stacked against Alain Perrin's side.

Daunting mission
After drawing 1-1 with Manchester United FC at home, Lyon need either to record a high-scoring draw or to become the first cross-Channel visitors to win at the self-styled 'Theatre of Dreams'. No French team have prevailed in ten previous trips to the home of the Premier League title-holders yet the experienced Coupet, 35, sounds undaunted when he says: "We know we have to score but we know we have a team that are capable of scoring at any time in the game. We are conscious of that and that helps us.

'Fifty-fifty'
"We know that the way United play, they will come out and attack so that gives us a chance to play," added Coupet, who hopes that crossing swords with "a big club in a big stadium" will bring the best out of a Lyon side who have struggled for form at times this season. "We have to go out there and show fight, desire, effort. I see the game as 50-50 at the moment."

Blackburn memory
Coupet knows at least something about success on English soil having been part of the only previous Lyon triumph here, a 1-0 victory at Blackburn Rovers FC in the first round of the 1998/99 UEFA Cup. Back then Lyon had not even won a single French championship – the first of their six successive Ligue 1 crowns came in 2002 – but their progress in the intervening decade means they should not face United with an inferiority complex, according to Coupet.

'Determined'
"We are not on the scale of a Manchester United as a club – in comparison, we are a small club in terms of what they have achieved nationally and internationally – but that makes us more determined. We have developed. We have come a long way and the pleasure in sport is having a go. You go in with determination, desire and belief, and who knows? Results aren't always logical in football."

Return from injury
Coupet missed the entire group stage because of a cruciate ligament injury but believes he has returned with an improved perspective. "It is great being 100 per cent. I feel great in myself, but I still have to work on my knee. The good news is I don't feel any pain after playing or training. When you are out such a long time it helps to put things into perspective, outside of football as well as inside the game."