Olympique Lyonnais – Dijon

After enjoying a brilliant campaign in the Champions League, Olympique Lyonnais are now starting their new season in the French Ligue 1. On Friday Les Gones will face Dijon at their own Groupama Stadium. Let’s preview this match for you in the next few paragraphs.

Olympique Lyonnais’ 2019/20 season was a strange one. Rudi Garcia’s team performed pretty badly in the Ligue 1 and finished 7th, but in the Champions League they reached the 1/2-finals. What’s even more impressive is that Lyonnais eliminated giants like Juventus and Manchester City in the knockout phase. Nobody really expected this, but sometimes football is unpredictable.

That’s the big problem for the manager Rudi Garcia right now – his team didn’t have any time to rest. Lyonnais just finished their Champions League campaign and now they must start the season in the Ligue 1. This could be a problem for the squad, because players were already exhausted. We will see how they will do on Friday when the domestic league starts again.

Dijon already started their Ligue 1 campaign, but they suffered a loss. Few days ago Dijon hosted Angers SCO at home, but didn’t do well enough and lost the game with 0-1. It’s too soon to say, but it won’t be surprising if Stephane Jobard’s team fights for survival once again. Last season they finished 17th in the Ligue 1.

To be honest, Dijon do not look very different at the moment. They didn’t make any significant transfers during the summer because they do not have the financial potenial for this. We will follow their progress through the season.

On paper Olympique Lyonnais are the obvious favourite against Dijon, but keep in mind that Les Gones didn’t have enough rest after the 2019/20 season. This could the chance for Dijon to hurt Lyonnais. Let’s see if they will use it.