Lyon – CSKA Moscow Europa League 15 March 2018

Lyon – CSKA Moscow Europa League

Lyon is in 4th place in Ligue 1 and completely out of battle for 2nd place. Bruno Genesio’s team plays a very good football, but the goals are missing from the table of the Lyons. The inadequacy of attacking offensive players cost him an elimination from the French Cup and probably the third place in the Uefa Champions League, so it is mandatory to qualify further in the Europa League to hope to win the trophy, otherwise UCL seems quite far . In the last round of the championship, Lyon won on his own field 1-0 against Caen and the goal was scored by Traore. The last 6 official matches of Lyon have ended with a maximum of 2 goals on the table. Nabil Fekir absent for this match. Fekir along with Mariano Diaz have 32 goals scored this season, and since Fekir is missing, Genesio’s offensive game has suffered.

CSKA Moscow is ranked 3rd in the first league in Russia and is trying to reach Lokomotiv Moscow which is 8 points over it in the standings. Goncharenko’s team managed to win the last round of the championship with 0-3 on the field of Akhmat Grozny and the goals of the victory were scored by Golovin, Vitinho and Ignasevich. This was the first game after 5 games in a row where the CSKA matches ended with a maximum of 1 goal on the scoreboard. In the home match against Lyon, Goncharenko’s team stayed close to the French, but the terrible and sloppy ground made them not to take advantage of several good opportunities. The coach of the team used a 5-3-2 system at the tournament and now is expected to use a 3-1-4-2 system as it often happens against the teams in the Russian championship. Fernandes and Vasin are absent for this match.

Lyon – CSKA Moscow Prediction

Given that Fekir is missing, one of the team’s base team on the attack stage, I think Lyon is more fragile when offensive action starts. Also, the last 6 games were few goals, so I expect the same thing to happen today. The most important thing for the French is to not receive a goal against a team that when it marks, it can close very well. The tour was 1-0 for Lyon and none of the teams think I will attack in the first few minutes.