Olympique Lyonnais is hosting West Ham at Groupama Stadium in the second leg of the UEFA Europa League quarterfinals. Lyon has been in decent form so far, but they have had an extra player on the pitch for the entire second half last week, and they weren’t able to win. West Ham has lost their last EPL game, but they are still a good team who will do everything to advance to the semifinals.
Lyon might be undefeated in their last 5 games, but they have won only 1 of those 5 games. In their last Ligue 1 game, Lyon has tied with Strasbourg, and they are now in 10th place in the Ligue 1 standings. In the second half of the game against West Ham last week, Lyon was dominant, they have had a lot of chances, but not only they couldn’t score, but they have also conceded a goal first. The final score was 1-1. Ekambi is the leading goalscorer for Lyon with 6 goals. There are a few injured players in Lyon, but nothing they can’t handle. Overall, this season has been a huge disappointment for Lyon, and qualifying for the Europa League semifinals would be a huge deal.
West Ham has been very inconsistent lately, and they have won only 1 of their last 4 games. Despite their bad form right now, West Ham is still in the Champions League hunt in the EPL. West Ham is in 6th place with 51 points. In that first leg, West Ham got really lucky, and they were able to get a positive result out of that match. There are no injuries in West Ham, while Cresswell is suspended because of the red card. West Ham has started this season in a great offensive form, but as the season moved on, West Ham’s offense started to produce less and less. Benrahma is the leading goalscorer for West Ham with 3 goals, while Yarmolenko, Bowen, and Rice have added 2 goals each. Antonio and Cresswell have added 2 assists each. West Ham is definitely capable of winning this game, but I don’t think they are that much better than Lyon, and this will be a very hard game for them.
Same as the first leg, I think this one will be tough as well, except Lyon won’t be as dominant. I would give a slight advantage to West Ham because they have been more consistent this season, but I will take the draw in this one.