Lyon are looking to continue their 100% start to their UEFA Europa League (UEL) campaign when they host Basel on Thursday.
Match News and Current Form
Back-to-back Ligue 1 defeats though do leave Lyon vulnerable to losing three straight games for the first time since August last year. On a more positive note, their UEL wins this season against Utrecht and Red Bull Salzburg have come without conceding, while they have not lost at home in the competition in their last five such encounters (W3, D2). Looking at a broader sample size, Les Gones have impressively only lost once in 17 UEL group/league-phase matches on their own turf (W12, D4), making the Groupama Stadium an extremely difficult place to visit.
Basel though, will be confident of getting a result themselves, having won their last three games in all competitions without conceding - a run which includes a 2-0 triumph over Stuttgart to get their UEL campaign back on track, following a matchday one defeat to Freiburg (2-1). Although two of those aforementioned three victories have come at St. Jakob-Park, the Swiss outfit have excelled away from home recently as well, winning four of their last five outings on their travels, albeit with two of their opponents receiving a red card in that time.
Head-to-Head History
Lyon and Basel have never previously played each other, while Les Gones have a perfect record against Swiss opposition, after beating Grasshoppers 1-0 both home and away in 2013.
Hot Stats and Streaks
Lyon have scored in each of their last 11 games in all competitions.
Lyon’s last eight wins have all been accompanied by a clean sheet.
None of Basel’s last nine matches have ended in a draw (W6, L3).
None of Basel’s last eight games have been 0-0 at half-time.
Key Players to Watch and Missing Players
Pavel Šulc ended a ten-game scoring drought for club and country by netting a brace in Lyon’s 3-2 defeat to Nice, with his last 16 goals split evenly between the first and second halves. Flavius Daniliuc scores far less often, with his goal at the weekend against Winterthur his first in more than a year - but the centre-back has always been on the winning side when finding the net at senior level (W3).
Neither side appear to have any fresh absentees.
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Betting Analysis
Given Lyon’s dip in form, it would be reasonable to punt on more than 2.5 total goals here with both teams to score.
Author: Alex Bowmer
