Olympique Lyon vs Salzburg Prediction and Betting Tips

Olympique Lyon and Salzburg return to action in the UEFA Europa League when they lock horns at the Groupama Stadium on Thursday. Both sides picked up contrasting opening-day results, with Thomas Letsch’s men suffering a narrow home defeat against Portuguese giants Porto.

Former Liverpool youngster Tyler Morton opened his account for Olympique Lyon on Sunday when he netted in the first half to fire them to a 1-0 victory over Lille in their French Ligue 1 clash.

With that result, Paulo Fonseca’s side have won three games on the trot, scoring three goals and keeping three clean sheets, and are on a run of seven wins from their eight games across all competitions this season.

Lyon, who are level on points with Paris Saint-Germain in the Ligue 1 table, now turn their focus to the Europa League, where they picked up a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Utrecht in the opening game last Wednesday.

Salzburg were denied a dream start to the Europa League campaign last Wednesday when they fell to a 1-0 defeat against Porto at the Red Bull Arena.

While the result against Porto marked a third defeat on the spin for Letsch’s men, they stopped the rot on Sunday courtesy of a 2-1 victory over WSG Tirol in the Austrian Bundesliga, where they sit fourth in the table with 14 points from eight games.

Salzburg have failed to win four of their last five matches (3L, 1D), and this slump in form has been due to their struggles in defense, where they have conceded nine goals while netting five at the opposite end of the pitch.

Olympique Lyon vs Salzburg Head-To-Head and Key Numbers

This will be the second-ever encounter between Lyon and Salzburg, with the Austrian outfit claiming a 1-0 victory when they met in a friendly back in July 2011.
Lyon have won all but one of their last eight competitive matches, with a 3-1 defeat against Stade Rennais on September 14 being the exception.
Salzburg have lost just two of their eight away matches in all competitions this season, while claiming five wins and one draw so far.
Lyon are unbeaten in 10 of their last 11 competitive home games, picking up nine wins and one draw since the start of March.

Olympique Lyon vs Salzburg Prediction

Buoyed by their victory over Tirol, Salzburg will head into Thursday’s game with renewed belief as they look to get their Europa League campaign up and running.

However, Lyon have started the new campaign strongly, and given the gulf in quality between the two teams, we are backing them to come out on top in front of their home supporters.

Prediction: Olympique Lyon 2-1 Salzburg

Olympique Lyon vs Salzburg Betting Tips

Tip 1: Result - Lyon to win

Tip 2: First to score - Lyon (The hosts have opened the scoring in their last eight matches)

Tip 3: Over 4.5 cards - Yes (There have also been at least five bookings in four of Lyon’s last five games)

About the author

Joshua is a European and international football writer at Sportskeeda who covers news and match previews. He fell in love with the sport watching Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o win titles at club and international level, and his passion for the sport led him to become a professional football writer. He has an overall professional experience of 5 years.

Joshua supports Chelsea at club level, having witnessed a number of African stars break records with the club. Drogba’s equalizing header and match-winning shootout penalty for Chelsea against Bayern Munich in the 2012 UEFA Champions League final left a last impact on him. His favorite player is Eden Hazard and favorite manager is Jose Mourinho, who gave him the most joyous days as a Blues supporter. He believes that Cristiano Ronaldo is unlucky to be born in Messi’s era and favors the Argentine in the G.O.A.T. debate.

Joshua also follows the Portuguese Primeira Liga and the Nigeria Professional Football League and loves to play football during his free time. Having attained a B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Ibadan, he employs his problem-solving skills in crafting articles while doing extensive research to ensure each article is well thought out and crafted.

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