Lyon vs West Ham United

Groupama Stadium is the venue as Lyon and West Ham United go head-to-head in the second leg of their evenly-poised Europa League quarter-final tie (1-1).

Lyon could only manage an underwhelming 1-1 draw away to Strasbourg over Ligue 1 weekend, making it four stalemates from five competitive matches (W1). But ‘Les Gones’ have enjoyed a stellar Europa League campaign so far, finishing top of Group A in the autumn before squeezing past former competition winners Porto in the previous knock-out round. Lyon’s overall knock-out record versus English clubs in major European competition is perfectly balanced (W3, L3). Yet, they can draw some confidence from their seven-game unbeaten European run against clubs from the Premier League (W4, D3). Moreover, they’ve only lost once in their ten previous home matches against English visitors (W2, D7). Meanwhile, they’re unbeaten in their last two competitive outings at the Groupama Stadium (W1, D1), scoring first on both occasions.

In the meantime, West Ham come into this encounter on the back of a disheartening 2-0 loss away to Premier League debutants Brentford, which further dented their top-four hopes. David Moyes’ men have now lost their last five away matches across all competitions, failing to get on the scoresheet on three occasions in this run. But before falling to a 1-0 first-leg loss at Sevilla in the previous knock-out round, the ‘Hammers’ had scored in six consecutive Europa League away games beforehand, meaning they could still have their say in this tie. By contrast, the London outfit have drawn a blank in all three previous away legs in European knock-out contests. Furthermore, they’ve won only three of their last 11 Europa League fixtures outside England (D2, L6), though two of those three successes arrived in this season’s group stages.