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The UEFA Europa League returns with another set of thrilling fixtures as Porto welcome Olympique Lyon to the Estadio do Dragão in the first leg of their round-of-16 clash on Wednesday.
The French outfit will be seeking to get one over the hosts, having failed to win any of the last three meetings between the sides.
Porto made it two consecutive victories last weekend as they comfortably saw off Pacos de Ferreira 4-2 in the Primeira Liga.
The Dragons now turn their attention to the Europa League, where they claimed a hard-fought 4-3 victory over Lazio in the playoff round.
Porto head into Wednesday’s game unbeaten in each of their last 18 games across all competitions, claiming 15 wins and three draws in that time.
Meanwhile, Lyon returned to winning ways last time out when they edged out Lorient 4-1 in Ligue 1.
Prior to that, they were on a two-game winless run, playing out a 1-1 draw with Lens on February 19 before losing 1-0 to Lille eight days later.
Lyon will now look to pick up where they dropped off in the Europa League group stages, where they finished top of Group A with five wins and one draw from six games.
Porto vs Olympique Lyon Head-To-Head
With three wins from the last six meetings between the sides, Porto boast a superior record in the history of this fixture. Lyon have picked up one win in that time, while two games have ended all square.
Porto Form Guide: W-D-D-W-W
Olympique Lyon Form Guide: L-W-D-L-W
Porto vs Olympique Lyon Team News
Porto
The hosts remain without the services of right-back Wilson Manafa, who has been ruled out through a knee problem. Full-back Wendell will serve his final suspension.
Injured: Wilson Manafa
Suspended: Wendell
Olympique Lyon
The Ligue 1 side will take to the pitch without Rayan Cherki and Sinaly Diomande, who have been ruled out through foot and ankle injuries respectively. Tanguy Ndombele, Jason Denayer and Leo Dubois are also injury doubts for the visitors.
Injured: Rayan Cherki, Sinaly Diomande
Suspended: Tanguy Ndombele, Jason Denayer, Leo Dubois
Suspended: None
Porto vs Olympique Lyon Predicted XI
Porto Predicted XI (4-4-2): Diogo Costa; Joao Mario, Pepe, Chancel Mbemba, Zaidu Sanusi; Otavio, Vitinha, Mateus Uribe, Wenderson Galeno; Evanilson, Mehdi Taremi
Lyon Predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Anthony Lopes; Malo Gusto, Thiago Mendes, Castello Lukeba, Emerson Palmieri; Maxence Caqueret, Houssem Aouar; Romain Faivre, Lucas Paqueta, Karl Toko Ekambi; Moussa Dembele
Porto vs Olympique Lyon Prediction
Unbeaten in each of their last 18 games in all competitions, Porto head into the round of 16 as one of the most in-form sides in the competition. While going up against the Ligue 1 side could prove a tricky task, we are backing the hosts to come away with a slender victory.
Prediction: Porto 2-1 Olympique Lyon
