Lyon take on the visitors Nice in the round 22 match of French Ligue 1. The match will be played on Friday, February 16th at Parc Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon).
Right now, Lyon are not those defenseless and harmless kittens losing one match after another. Last calendar year in the championship, for example, the team closed with three consecutive victories: over Toulouse (3-0), Monaco (1-0), and Nantes (1-0). Yes, then they lost to Le Havre and Rennes in January. But heading into the match against the main revelation of the season in Ligue 1, Lyon comes with a mini-series of two consecutive wins. First, they defeated Marseille at home (1-0) in a crucial derby, and then away they beat Montpellier (2-1). I don't know if the Lions can take points from Nice, but the hosts will definitely not give the visitors an easy time.
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Nice have been without a win in the championship for two consecutive rounds. First, they drew with Brest (0-0), then lost to Monaco (2-3). However, even after such results, Francesco Farioli's wards continue to hold onto the second position in the table, remaining the main contender for the silver medals of Ligue 1. Matches like the derby against Monaco are rare exceptions for Nice. The team has played 21 matches in the championship. The most common scoreline in matches involving Nice is 1-0 in one direction or the other, occurring in exactly one-third of the games. In four matches, there were no goals at all, in three the score was 2-0 or 0-2, and twice there was a draw with a score of 1-1. Francesco Farioli's team is a bottom-tier team.
I think Lyon and Nice will play low-scoring in terms of total goals in their encounter. Yes, the hosts have done this only in 10 out of 21 matches in the current season's championship, but the visitors have done so in 17 out of 21. Even at home, Lyon won't exert much force in attack against the team with the most reliable defense in the country at the moment. Yes, Nice concedes the fewest goals in the league (only 14). But the Eagles score at the level of mid-table teams like Le Havre and Strasbourg, so don't expect a goal fest from the visitors either. In the first round of the current season, neither Lyon nor Nice managed to score in 90 minutes. I believe that if there are accurate shots now, there won't be more than one or two goals.
Prediction for the match: Under 2.5 scored goals.
