Thursday 9 March 2017

Europa League: Lyon vs Roma - battle of the big scoring marksmen Lacazette and Dzeko

KEY MAN: Olympique Lyonnais's leading scorer Alexandre Lacazette

By Steven Oldham 

LYON vs AS ROMA

This eye-catching fixture in the round of 16 sees Lyon take on Roma with the French team looking to add some much-needed consistency to their season.

They are well off the title pace in Ligue 1, 18 points behind leaders Monaco having played only one game less.  

When on form not many teams can live with them - handing Metz a 5-0 thrashing, outclassing Nancy 4-0 and crushing AZ in this competition 11-2 on aggregate, all since the start of the year. 

The goals of Alexandre Lacazette have been crucial in what has been good about Lyon's game this season - the marksman has 27 already this campaign - and he could be the difference between Lyon's season ending as a damp squib or a success.

However, out-of-sync defeats to Caen and Lille in the same timeframe, coupled with five defeats in their first ten league matches, leave them somewhere short of where they want to be.  

Victory in this competition is now pretty much their only way into the Champion's League next season barring a miracle run. 


Roma meanwhile, continue to perform strongly. Despite a narrow defeat to Napoli at the weekend, they have eight wins in ten and continue to chase Juventus at the top of Serie A.

The return of Luciano Spalletti just over a year ago to the dugout has reinvigorated Roma's fortunes despite some of his decisions not being universally accepted. The results though - a 64% win rate in 14 months - can not be argued with. 

Edin Dzeko is enjoying a purple patch this season  - the ex-Manchester City man has 29 for the season including eight in this competition - including a hat trick against Villareal in the last round. 

The mercurial form of Radja Nainggolan since the start of 2017 has been a big part of their success - he's scored six times in six games over two months - and the midfielder will surely be a key player in this fixture.

Centre back Antonio Rudiger misses out through suspension.

Both teams are not short of goals so regardless of the winner, it should be an entertaining pair of fixtures. Roma will head into the game as favourites but a lot depends on whether Lyon show up - if they do, they can cause real problems.



PURPLE PATCH: Roma striker Edin Dzeko is in lethal form

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