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. 

SCHALKE 04 vs BORUSSIA MONCHENGLADBACH PREVIEW

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

Tennis: Three seeds with tough opening matches at Wimbledon

By Steven Oldham

The first round of Wimbledon always throws up surprises with seeded players being knocked out by relative unknowns and those lower in the rankings.

Whether rising stars or seasoned pros dropping down the rankings, the courts of SW19 are often a great leveller for the unseeded players.

This year's draw has revealed some interesting first round ties and some seeds have been handed far more difficult ties than they would like. I've picked three who would probably have liked an easier start to the tournament than they are likely to get.

Gentlemen's Singles:

Marcel Granollers (30) vs Nicolas Mahut

Doubles specialist Marcel Granollers could be in danger of an early exit after being drawn against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. The two men have never played head to head before so there is no past form to go on, but the Spaniard's past form at Wimbledon is poor. In seven attempts, he has only been past the opening round twice - and on both of those occasions he was eliminated in the second round. His best results consistently come on clay, whereas Mahut's favoured surface is grass.  He is already part of Wimbledon folklore for his role in the longest match in history with John Isner in 2010.  He comes into the tournament in relatively poor form, having been knocked out in several tournaments by lower ranked players, but he has the grass court technique and smarts to unsettle Granollers and make the next round.

Marathon man Nicolas Mahut (@WilsonTennis)

Andreas Seppi (25) vs Leonardo Mayer

Argentina's Leonardo Mayer is in danger of being one of the forgotten players of his generation having shown much promise early in his career. He has yet to better his achievements from 2010 in any of the Grand Slams, with his best performance coming in the US Open where he reached the third round. This year however he has been unlucky, with matches against members of the 'big four' in the two Grand Slams - Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal knocked him out of the Australian and French Opens respectively. All three of his matches againt Seppi have been losing efforts on clay, but the Italian hasn't been in great form, with surprise losses against the likes of Michael Llodra, Donald Young and Denis Istomin since the turn of the year. He should have too much for Mayer, but it wouldn't be the first time he has fallen to supposed lesser opposition.

Can Andreas Seppi tough it out over Leo Mayer? (@WeAreTennis)

Ladies' singles:

Sloane Stephens (19) vs Maria Kirilenko

Russia's Maria Kirilenko continues her long comeback from a knee injury against Sloane Stephens in the first round at Wimbledon. She will be hoping for an improvement on last year, where she was eliminated in the first round by Laura Robson, a match which saw her lose her top ten ranking. It was the beginning of a rapid slide down the listings for Kirilenko, whose injury problems destroyed the latter half of last year and caused her to miss the Australian Open. She had shown much promise in the first half of 2013, recording victories over top tier players including Sabine Lisicki and Petra Kvitova on her way to the top ten for the first time. She has the talent to beat Stephens, but if her troublesome knee will allow her to do so is another matter. The American - six years Kirilenko's junior - has won the only previous meeting between the two. She made the quarter finals last year before losing to eventual winner Marion Bartoli but arguably did not come up against an opponent of Kirilenko's quality in the four rounds before that game.



Can Maria Kirilenko upset Sloane Stephens? (@WTA)



Tahiti: The biggest underdogs in the history of world football

By Steven Oldham

Tomorrow in Belo Horizonte, amateurs Tahiti begin their first ever Confederations Cup campaign against Nigeria with the sole intention of keeping their almost inevitable group stage losses to a respectable level.

That Tahiti are even competing in Brazil is a surprise in itself.  The largest island in French Polynesia won last year's Oceania Nations Cup for the first time to qualify, beating New Caledonia 2-0 in the final.  Regional power, and four times winners,  New Zealand - expected to dominate the competition ever since Australia left the OFC in 2006 - underachieved and finished third having been knocked out in the semis by New Caledonia.

Drawn into Group B alongside Nigeria, Spain, and Uruguay, Tahiti face a daunting task and could score some unwanted records in their three group matches. Australia and Saudi Arabia have both lost by six goals to Brazil (6-0 and 8-2 respectively) in the tournament's history.  I don't feel it's disrespectful to say it would be an achievement for Tahiti to restrict their opponents to single figure victories.  This is the international equivalent of sending Havant & Waterlooville to a tournament including Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United.

Ranked 138th in the world, below the likes of Namibia, Moldova and Vietnam, Tahiti's team includes several graduates from the side that qualified for the Under 20 World Cup four years ago.  There is evidence that Tahiti and the others are closing the gap to New Zealand, beyond the 2012 OFC Nations Cup result .  In the final round of World Cup 2014 qualifying, which New Zealand won to progress to an intercontinental playoff in November, there wasn't as many one-sided results as is common with the Oceania qualifying process.  The All Whites were restricted two-goal margins in all three of their away fixtures. In qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, New Zealand put ten past Tahiti without reply.    

So will any of the Tahiti players cause a shock and make a name for themselves? Unlikely, but their highest profile player is arguably the AS Nancy striker Marama Vahirua, who spent last season on loan in Greece.  He has scored over 70 goals in French football and played for France at under-21 level under Raymond Domenech.  He is the only player in the 23-man squad not to play his football in Tahiti's First Division.  If reports are to believed, they will adopt a 'defence first' approach in Brazil to keep events respectable.     

While it may seem pointless for a team of Tahiti's stature to be involved with some of the world's best teams in Brazil, there is no doubt they have earned their place.  The long term future of the OFC will look a lot stronger if the island nations including Tahiti and New Caledonia continue to improve and challenge New Zealand's position as regional top dog.

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