After an enthralling and fiery victory over fellow high-flyers Monaco last time out, Champions League-chasing Lyon welcome relegation-threatened Lorient to the Groupama Stadium on Saturday evening.
The visitors also managed to claim three points from their clash with Angers in gameweek 35, as they boosted their survival hopes with a 2-0 success over the out-of-form Scoistes.
Match preview
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Tensions boiled over after the final whistle in Monaco's meeting with Lyon on Sunday evening, as four players - two from each side - saw red following a mass brawl, and it was disappointing to see the thrilling action on the pitch overshadowed by that confrontation.
Before players squared up to one another, 17-year-old Rayan Cherki scored an 89th-minute winner during a 3-2 success for Lyon - who had already had Maxence Caqueret sent off earlier in the game - and Cherki netted just three minutes after Wissam Ben Yedder's cheeky Panenka penalty appeared to have rescued a point for Les Monegasques.
That result effectively killed off Monaco's chances of challenging for the Ligue 1 title, and fourth-placed Lyon are now only one point adrift of their adversaries in the table, with a return to the Champions League very much on the cards if results go their way.
Rudi Garcia's men have marched to victory in three of their last four Ligue 1 games - scoring at least two goals on each occasion during that run - and with fixtures against Nimes and Nice to come, Lyon can surely look ahead to a positive end to a turbulent campaign.
Les Gones topped the table heading into 2021 and will ultimately be disappointed to settle for a third or fourth-placed finish, and Lorient springing a surprise this weekend is not beyond the realm of possibility, as Lyon have lost three of their last five league games at the Groupama Stadium.
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As the battle to avoid demotion to Ligue 2 prepares to reach boiling point, Lorient continue to give themselves the best chance possible of survival, as they followed up their thumping of Bordeaux with a 2-0 success over mid-table Angers last Sunday.
In a game where both teams finished with 10 men, former Scoistes attacker Yoane Wissa opened the scoring on the 44-minute mark with a confidently-dispatched penalty, and a rare goal from Fabien Lemoine wrapped up the three points for Les Merlus three minutes after the restart.
Christophe Pelissier's side are not out of the woods just yet, but the 17th-placed Merlus are four clear of Nantes in the relegation playoff spot and six points clear of Nimes in the automatic relegation zone - a testament to their marked improvement since recovering from a major coronavirus outbreak in January.
Lorient have only suffered four defeats in their last 16 Ligue 1 matches and could potentially rise as high as 13th with a shock win at the Groupama Stadium, but the bulk of their points have come at home this season, and they travel to Lyon on a 13-game winless run on the road since beating Reims 3-1 in October.
Les Merlus did manage to hold Lyon to a 1-1 draw when the sides did battle at the Stade du Moustoir in September, and Lorient have proven to be somewhat of a bogey team for Les Gones in years gone by, as Lyon have won just two of their last nine league games against the newly-promoted outfit.
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Team News
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Caqueret, Marcelo and Mattia De Sciglio will all serve bans this weekend after being brandished from the field of play against Monaco, while star striker Memphis Depay is also suspended for an accumulation of bookings.
Garcia had seen enough of Jason Denayer after a shaky 29 minutes against Monaco, but the Belgian defender is sure to start with De Sciglio and Marcelo out, while Houssem Aouar will hope to replace Caqueret in the middle.
With Islam Slimani not expected to recover from a thigh problem just yet, Tino Kadewere is expected to earn a recall to the first XI here.
Lorient's Julien Laporte will also watch this one from the naughty step after seeing red against Angers, so Inter Milan loanee Andreaw Gravillon should earn a recall to Pelissier's back five.
Quentin Boisgard is now expected to miss the remainder of the season with a metatarsal fracture, but Jonathan Delaplace has reportedly returned to training following a calf issue and should be available.
Armand Lauriente is pushing for a recall to the first XI, but Wissa and 14-goal striker Terem Moffi are unlikely to be displaced.
Lyon possible starting lineup:
Lopes; Dubois, Denayer, Diomande, Cornet; Mendes, Aouar; Cherki, Paqueta, Toko Ekambi; Kadewere
Lorient possible starting lineup:
Nardi; Hergault, Gravillon, Chalobah, Morel, Le Goff; Lemoine, Abergel; Le Fee; Moffi, Wissa
We say: Lyon 2-0 Lorient
An inspired Lorient are capable of making this game a banana skin for Lyon, who must work around a spate of absentees at the worst time possible.
However, Garcia's men should still have too much quality for the division's second-worst performing side away from home, so we are backing a comfortable triumph for Les Gones.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Lyon win with a probability of 61.86%. A draw had a probability of 19.9% and a win for Lorient had a probability of 18.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Lyon win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.85%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9%) and 1-0 (8.29%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (9.08%), while for a Lorient win it was 1-2 (4.97%). The actual scoreline of 4-1 was predicted with a 3.9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Lyon would win this match.
