Lyon vs Dinamo Zagreb Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Lyon haven’t had the best of times the last few weeks. They opened the campaign with a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of PSG in the French Super Cup, but they looked to have recovered as Alexandre Lacazette scored five goals and led them to wins against Nancy and Caen.

However,amazingly they lost 4-2 at Dijon just before the international break and came back after the Ligue 1 hiatus to play out a 3-1 home loss to Bordeaux on Saturday. This is Lyon’s first loss at the newly built Parc OL and only the second time they’ve dropped points there.

Now Lyon have to recover their focus and move on, as this is an incredibly important match for them. They’ve been drawn in a group including Serie A giants Juventus and Europa League champion Sevilla alongside Dinamo Zagreb, so it certainly won’t be an easy ride to the knockout stages here. A win against Dinamo Zagreb will give them an early advantage over one or both Sevilla and Juventus depending on their result when they meet each other.

Dinamo Zagreb endured their own shock defeat on Saturday, and it was a defeat that was much more unexpected than Lyon’s failure. They lost 1-0 at home to Osijek in the Croatian 1. HNL. This is their first defeat in all competitions since March and their first defeat at home since December. That home defeat was against Bayern Munich though, and in the league you have to go all the way back to July 2010.

Of course, Dinamo Zagreb are less indestructible at home on a continental level. This was evident when they lost to Olympiakos and Bayern Munich in the group stages last season. Their squad is weaker now as well since the departures of Marko Pjaca, Eduardo, Marcelo Brozovic, and Josip Brekalo.

Away from home the visitors lost all three of their group stage matches last season, and they endured the same in the 2012/14 and the 2011/12 group stages. They have lost every single one of their away group games in the Champions League in each of their last three seasons of participating in them. Eight of these nine defeats have been by more than a single goal margin as well, so odds of 2.025 for a Lyon -1.0 Asian Handicap look good value to me, despite their recent upset. I’m going for a 3-0 correct score prediction at 10/1 as well.