Rangers vs. Lyon 9/16/21 UEFA Europa League Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Rangers and Lyon face off in the first game of Group A of the Europa League on Thursday at Ibrox Stadium.

The Rangers again look like the best team in the Scottish Premiership sitting in 1st place with 12 points. The Rangers offense actually hasn’t been running up the score this season, but their defense has been all about the defense. Over the last three games the Rangers have given up only one goal. In the last game against St. Johnstone, they actually fell behind 1-0, but it was a goal by Kemar Roofe and James Tavernier after the 58th minute that allowed them to come away with the victory. In this game it’s going to be about the defense being strong and locking down Lyons. 

On the other side of this matchup is Lyon who sit in 7th place in the standings of Ligue 1 having picked up eight points in five games. Lyon has won two games in a row and outscored their opponents 4-1 in those games. In the last game against Strasbourg it was a dominating victory with the goal-scoring starting in the 8th minute by Moussa Dembele. The only goal given up by Lyon was in the 97th minute on a penalty kick. Lyon is facing a good defense, and they can’t just assume they are going to get plenty of easy scoring chances in this game. Lyon needs to take advantage of every scoring chance they get.

These are two teams who have played some really good defense this season, and I don’t expect a whole lot of scoring chances in this game. I don’t see more than one goal being scored by either team in this game. Back the under.