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UEL Preview: Lyon look to seal quarterfinal spot
Gones in top form
Despite a tricky match on the road to OGC Nice on Sunday, Lyon look even better-positioned for a return to European football than they did a week ago. A comprehensive 2-0 at the Allianz Rivieira made it five wins from six for Paulo Fonseca's club, the only blemish in that period a 3-2 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. Lyon's assortment of attacking options was on full display on Sunday evening as January signing Thiago Almada recorded a pair of assists. Lucas Perri added three saves as Lyon notched a win that saw them move to sixth, maintaining an advantage over hard-charging Strasbourg and moving to within two points of the top four.
As for FCSB, they concluded the first part of their league campaign with a narrow win over Universatea Craiova, a 1-0 win that allowed them to finish atop the table ahead of a pair of Bucharest derbies against Dinamo and Rapid.
Muchachos 🇦🇷✨ pic.twitter.com/To2GMn4D4G
— Olympique Lyonnais 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@OL_English) March 10, 2025
Confident but cautious
For this match, despite a good result in the reverse fixture, and confidence in his attacking players, Fonseca has preached caution, and plans to line up a strong side, saying (rather than focusing on their match against Le Havre at the weekend) that, "The next game is always the most important. We're going to play with a strong team, even if I change the team to almost every game. But we're going to select a team to win tomorrow."
Winning has hardly been difficult to do for Lyon and the same is true for their scoring abilities -- since the beginning of February, only Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have scored more goals among sides in Europe's top five leagues, ensuring that the visitors will have their work cut out for them on the evening.
Predicted lineups:
Olympique Lyonnais (4-2-3-1): Perri; Maitland-Niles, Perri, Niakhaté, Abner; Veretout (or Matic), Tessmann; Cherki, Tolisso (or Almada), Nuamah; Mikautadze
FCSB (4-2-3-1): Tarnovanu; Cretu, Ngezana, Dawa, Radunovic; Chiriches, Sut; Miculescu, Edjouma, Gheorgita; Baluta
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