French Ligue 1 will be back in action this weekend when Lyon welcomes AC Ajaccio to Groupama Stadium in the first round of the campaign. Match day schedules for August 5 at 22:00 EAT.
Lyon seems to have strengthened their squad after a relatively underwhelming campaign last season, in the preseason they have had mixed performance. They managed to win four of their eight friendlies, yet also lost 5-0 to Willem and 3-0 to Anderlecht. Their defensive issues last season were addressed in the transfer window by the signing of Nicolas Tagliafico and welcoming back a couple of old crew.
Lyon will be looking to resume where they left off with 1-2 Ligue 1 win to beat Clermont Foot last season. In that match, Lyon had 55% possession, 21 with five of them on target and goals scored by Moussa Dembélé (26′) and Houssem Aouar (49′). Clermont Foot got 18 shots with three of them on target and a goal by Mohamed Bayo (59′).
AC Ajaccio finished second in Ligue 2 to get the promotion back into the top flight. Ajaccio had a decent preseason however they played mostly Ligue 2 outfits; they won two and drawing one of their five firndlies. They finished the season strongly in the second tier, going unbeaten in their last ten league games and will be aiming to continue in that way.
AC Ajaccio heads into this encounter confident after 1-0 Ligue 2 victory over Toulouse in their most recent match. In that match, Ajaccio had 38% possession, 16 shots with nine of them on target and a goal by scored by Riad Nouri (28′). Toulouse got seven shots with only one of them on target.
Lyon vs. AC Ajaccio head to head
Lyon boasts the upper hand in the head to head history of this fixture having won 11 times from the 16 meetings since 2002. Three matched played out draws while Ajaccio won two times.
- Lyon 5-1 AC Ajaccio 09/02/21
- Lyon 3-1 AC Ajaccio 16/02/14
- AC Ajaccio 2-1 Lyon 25/09/13
- AC Ajaccio 3-1 Lyon 03/02/13
- Lyon 2-0 AC Ajaccio 16/09/12
Home
- Inter 2-2 Lyon
- Feyenoord 0-2 Lyon
- Willem II 5-0 Lyon
- Anderlecht 3-0 Lyon
- Lyon 3-0 Dynamo Kiev
Away
- Lorient 1-1 AC Ajaccio
- Choletais 1-3 AC Ajaccio
- Caen 1-0 AC Ajaccio
- AC Ajaccio 1-0 Toulouse
- Grenoble 1-1 AC Ajaccio
Lyon team news
Peter Bosz will be without the services of Maxence Caqueret who is sidelined through injury.
AC Ajaccio team news
Boss Olivier Pantaloni will take to the pitch without any fitness or suspension concerns.
Prediction and odds
We are backing Lyon to win in this fixture; despite the home advantage Lyon have the top flight experience while AC Ajaccio is fresh off second tier however a second please finish means enough firepower to push back.
- Lyon Win
- Draw
- Goals under 2.5
