Improving Lyon favorite to beat Steaua

Lyon finally seems to have solved its defensive problems, and with striker Karim Benzema scoring freely the French champions will hope for a convincing win over Steaua Bucharest in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Unbeaten so far in the Champions League, Lyon has kept a clean sheet in its last three league games, while Benzema has scored spectacular goals in consecutive games to further enhance his reputation as one of Europe's best forwards.

"Little by little, things are coming together," Lyon coach Claude Puel said. "We've been working hard since the start of the season."

The main thing Lyon needed to improve was its defending.

When it played away to Steaua two weeks ago, poor defending from Lyon saw it fall 2-0 down after just 11 minutes. The seven-time French champion fought back to win 5-3, with Benzema's two clinical finishes taking his Champions League career tally to 10 in 14 games.

Lyon also rallied from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at home to Fiorentina, and a 1-1 draw away to Bayern Munich means Claude Puel's team has five points from three games _ putting it two points behind Bayern in Group F.

A victory would put Lyon top of Group F only if Bayern loses at Fiorentina in the other match.

Despite recent improvement, Puel is cautious about facing a Steaua team keen to impress its new coach Dorinel Munteanu.

Munteanu replaced Marius Lacatus _ both are former Romania internationals _ after he stood down following the home defeat to Lyon.

"Wednesday's game against Bucharest will be difficult, really tough," Puel said. "The change of coach will motivate them, and the fact we won over there does not mean it will be easy at (Stade) Gerland."

Lyon's 2-0 win over Le Mans on Sunday took it four points clear at the top of the French league, while Steaua is six points behind city rival Dinamo and lies in fourth place. They drew their local derby match 1-1 on Saturday.

The return to form of Brazilian defender Cris has boosted Lyon's fragile defense. Lyon had conceded eight goals in three games prior to the recent run of three straight shut outs.

"It's very good for morale and for confidence," Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris said. "Now we have to think about the Champions League. It's a very important match and we absolutely have to get the three points."

Defender Jean-Alain Boumsong hopes Benzema continues his scoring run with another similar effort to Sunday's goal against Le Mans. The 20-year-old France forward collected the ball 40 yards (meters) from goal, turned quickly to run at the defense and then hit a curling, angled shot into the opposite corner from the right side of the penalty area.

"Karim's goal was magnificent," Boumsong said. "I hope he gets another one on Wednesday."

Lyon will be missing midfielder Miralem Pjanic through injury, but Puel got a boost when Italy defender Fabio Grosso, who has bruised ribs, passed a fitness test and was included in the squad.

Mathieu Bodmer and John Mensah are both out with groin injuries, and winger Sidney Govou _ out for the past month with an ankle injury _ has resumed training but is still short of fitness.