Lyon Can Take Huge Step Towards Knockout Stages
Oleksandr Osipov / Shutterstock.com
The fourth round of games in the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League continue on Wednesday. After three matches, Group F is looking much closer than many people expected and all four teams still have a chance to qualify.
Lyon, who start this round of games sitting in second place, host Hoffenheim at the Groupama Stadium. The French club have 5 points while Hoffenheim are in third place with 2 points to their name.
A win for Lyon would send them very close to the Round of 16 while Hoffenheim know that even a draw would be good enough to keep them in contention going into the last two rounds of matches.
Lyon come into this game having been held to a 1-1 draw at home by Bordeaux in Ligue 1. The French title is already out of reach this season as Paris Saint-Germain race away at the top of the table. However, Lyon are unbeaten in their last four games and have recovered from the heavy 5-0 loss at PSG in October.
Trends show Lyon are undefeated in their last five matches at home but only two of those games have ended in wins. There was a good 4-2 win over Marseille and a 2-0 win over Nimes, both in Ligue 1. The only home Champions League game Lyon have played this season ended in a 2-2 draw with Shakhtar Donetsk.
Lyon have a poor recent record at home in the Champions League and have won only one of their last eight home matches, losing five of them.
Hoffenheim make the short trip to France having recorded an excellent 4-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga on the weekend. It was a tremendous win for Hoffenheim and will give them plenty of encouragement going into this match.
Trends show Hoffenheim have been difficult to beat recently and they have lost one of their last five games in all competitions. There have been wins over Nurnberg, Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen plus a draw in the reverse fixture of this game, which ended 3-3 in Germany.
Hoffenheim have been in decent form away from home, winning three and drawing one of their last five matches. The draw came at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League and means Hoffenheim have yet to win an away game in the competition although they have played just twice.
Team news and Lyon are definitely without the injured Amine Gouiri but there is better news elsewhere as Maxwel Cornet returned to the bench on the weekend and could feature in this game. Nabil Fekir will also return having missed the match two weeks ago.
Hoffenheim are still without the injured trio of Benjamin Hubner, Lukas Rupp and Stefan Posch. Florian Grillitsch returned to the team on the weekend while Joelinton and Arsenal loanee Reiss Nelson are pushing for a start.
If the first game between these two teams is anything to go by, we should be in for an entertaining match. Expect to see goals and it would not be a surprise to see another draw with both teams scoring.
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