After holding leaders PSG to a 1-1 draw, Lyon travel to play relegation-threatened Troyes having a great opportunity to return to winning ways while third-place Marseille will be determined to leapfrog Nice in the standings and finish the round in second place. Our sportsbook is offering a great number of props for each game in the European top leagues.
Troyes vs. Lyon: Bounce Back Time
The arrival of coach Peter Bosz was meant to restore stability at the seven-time French champion. Instead, after 20 games in the French top-flight league, Lyon are now languishing in mid-table along with incidents of fan violence. Lyon has conceded 27 goals so far in the league this term, with former Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, and Ajax coach underperforming compared to his predecessors Rudi Garcia and Bruno Genesio.
Known for his positive and attacking football, Bosz has failed to find the right balance in the domestic league, but their Europa League campaign is top-notch. With five wins, a draw and 16 goals scored in the process, they qualified first from a group with Rangers, Sparta Prague and Brondby. Emerson, Xherdan Shaqiri, and Jerome Boateng are Lyon’s biggest signings of the summer, but they all failed to impress this season.
It looks like things are improving and Lyon enter this match full of confidence after keeping leaders PSG to a 1-1 draw last weekend. They are priced at -125 on the three-way moneyline according to the latest soccer odds. Last month, Lyon was deducted one point by the French league’s disciplinary committee after Marseille’s player Dimitri Payet was hit by a bottle thrown from the stands at Lyon’s stadium. On top of that, they were thrown out of the French Cup and handed a ban until 2023 after fan violence.
They have an amazing squad fully packed with talented players all over the pitch. They are scary good if you take the players one by one so at the end of the day, we are all thinking that the person to blame is the coach. Time will tell but for now, Lyon must start winning games if they want to play in Europe next season. This is a perfect opportunity for them to end their winless streak and extend their head-to-head winning run against a struggling Troyes.
They won the previous eight mutual encounters across all competitions against them covering the spread in the last four. We expect them to enter this clash all guns blazing and despite not being the correct team to be backed in our soccer picks and parlays, we have good feelings about this one. Karl Toko Ekambi, Islam Slimani, and Tino Kadewere are out for one month as they are playing for their countries at the Africa Cup of Nations, but they still possess great attacking firepower with Lucas Paqueta, Houssem Aouar, and Moussa Dembele.
Pick: Lyon ML at -125
Marseille vs. Lille: Entertainment Guaranteed
Lille’s first match of the year against Lorient, initially scheduled for Saturday, January 8, was postponed after a number of Lorient players tested positive for COVID. Basically, the game against Marseille is the first one for Lille since December 22. After a poor start to their campaign, Lille are back on track and enter this match on the back of 11 unbeaten matches across all competitions (minus the Coupe de France clash against Lens). They also qualified in the Champions League knock-out stages from the first position in a group with Salzburg, Sevilla, and Wolfsburg.
They beat Marseille in the reverse match 2-0 on home soil with rising star Jonathan David scoring a brace. On the other side, Marseille has the best defense in the league with just 15 goals conceded in 19 games. They are sitting third in the standings, equal on points with second-placed Nice but they have a game in hand on them. Surprisingly they are performing better on the road this season, struggling to keep clean sheets on home soil. They controlled the entire match against a depleted Bordeaux last weekend, but they managed to score just once.
At this venue, we’ve seen 3+ goals in three of the last four mutual encounters between the two teams with both contributing on the scoresheet. We expect another thrilling match between two great attacking teams with at least three goals scored between them, so if you’re betting online we recommend you skip the winners’ market and go with goals.
Pick: Over 2½ in the match at -105
