Our prediction for this Ligue 1 match:
Buoyed by a hard-fought 2-1 win over Toulouse, Olympique Lyon will look to keep on climbing the standings when they face Nantes on home soil. Les Gones have been showing signs of improvement of late, but they must win Sunday’s clash if they are to rejoin the title race. Experienced attacker Alexandre Lacazette is a pushing for a start, while there are no fresh injury worries in the home team.
Les Canaris, on the other hand, aim to put an end to their three-game winless run in the French top flight, but given Lyon’s fine form, we predict that the visitors are going to return home with their hands empty. To make things even worse for the away team, forward Marcus Coco misses out through suspension, while the likes of Tino Kadewere, Jean-Kevin Duverne, Bahereba Guirassy, Fabien Centonze, and Adel Mahamoud are sidelined with injuries.
Highlighted Player (Alexandre Lacazette):
Alexandre Lacazette is a hometown boy of Lyon, a powerful striker who went through the youth ranks of the French side to become one of the most important players for Les Gones. The 25-year-old forward was also a member of all France national team selections becoming a European champion at the age of 19 by scoring the winner in the final against Spain.
This goal gave him a reputation of a big game player, one he went on to uphold on various occasions at his club. Lacazette is a hard working forward an accomplished finisher of the ball able to score from different positions. The most prolific striker in his side and among the top ones in the Ligue 1, Alexandre Lacazette scored more than 20 league goals last two seasons on a trot.
Constantly linked with a move away from Lyon, Alexandre Lacazette refuses to speak about anything other than his football and is leaving all the talk to the football pitch.
Highlighted Team (Nantes):
Founded on April 21, 1943 Nantes is a professional football club that compete in French Ligue 1. Les Canaris are considered one of the most famous French clubs and they had a lot of success during the sixties and the seventies. Nantes won their first Ligue 1 title in the 1964/1965 season and 36 years later (2000/2001) they clinched their eighth (last) domestic trophy.
Speaking of the club’s European success, les Canaris did well to make it to the Champions League semis in 1996, but Italian giants Juventus proved to be a big catch for the French outfit. Nantes welcome their rivals at La Beaujoire-Louis Fonteneau and the capacity of the stadium is 38.004.
The likes of Vahid Halilhodzic, Adel Selimi, Michel Der Zakarian, Viorel Moldovan, Mario Yepes, Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps, Claude Makelele, Christian Karembeu and Dimitri Payet are the notable footballers who played for the club in the past. Nantes are well known for their yellow jerseys and that is the reason why they are nicknamed the Canaries (les Canaris).