Competition: UEFA Europa League 2016-17
Date: Thursday, 9th March, 20:05 GMT
Stadium: Parc Olympique Lyonnais.


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Lyon vs Roma Preview and Prediction

With Nice, Monaco, and PSG leading the way in the Ligue 1 title race Lyon don’t have much hope of lifting the league title come the end of the season. They are also eliminated from both of France’s domestic cups, leaving the Europa League a high priority.

Their 1-1 draw with Bordeaux on Friday leaves them 15 points adrift of 3rd placed Nice in the Ligue 1 table, but it does extend their unbeaten streak to five matches in all competitions. Four of these have been victories, and all of those have been absolute thrillers.

There have been a total of 26 goals scored in Lyon’s last five outings, and the majority of them have gone in Lyon’s favour. The most emphatic of these was their 7-1 demolition of AZ in the second leg of their Europa League tie, a humiliating result which made it 11-2 on aggregate to the French side.

Roma are unlikely to be that easy to beat though. The visitors lost 2-1 at home to Napoli on Saturday to make it three losses from their last four outings in all competitions. They are some 18 points adrift of Serie A leaders Juventus at the moment, which leaves the Europa League as a high priority for them too.

Two of these three defeats came at home, including an inconsequential 1-0 loss to Villarreal after their 4-0 victory in the first leg. Away from home Roma have won five of their last seven matches and scored an impressive 13 goals in the process, although they have conceded six at the other end.

This has all the makings of a high scoring affair in my eyes. Lyon have won six of their last seven home matches and scored a huge 31 goals in the process, but they have conceded six times in this period and they’re facing an offensively talented Roma side on Thursday.

Alexandre Lacazette is obviously the main man for the hosts. The French striker has scored 27 goals in all competitions this season and has two in two in the Europa League, so odds of 5/6 for him to score anytime look good value for our goalscorer predictions.


Considering Lyon have scored at least two goals in eight of their last nine home games in all competitions I think odds of 1/1 for Lyon Over 1.5 Team Goals is a good value offering, so I’m going for that alongside a 3-1 correct score predictions at 16/1.

HEAD TO HEAD
Roma have won one and drawn one of their two previous meetings with Lyon.
LYON VS ROMA STATS
Lyon have scored two of more goals in 89% of their last nine home games in all competitions and have scored an average of 4.1 goals per game in their last seven at the Parc OL.
LYON TEAM NEWS

Defender Maciej Rybus and midfielder Mathieu Valbuena are expected to miss out here.
ROMA TEAM NEWS

Midfield duo Radja Nainggolan and Alessandro Florenzi are doubts ahead of this clash.

LYON VS ROMA PREDICTIONS: over 2.5 goal