Ligue 1 Predictions | Round 9: Strasbourg look to back up PSG draw at Lyon | OneFootball

Ligue 1 Predictions, Round 9

GFFN editor-in-chief  Luke Entwistle, and sub-editors Raphaël Jucobin and Bastien Cheval face off in our Ligue 1 predictions competition. This season, GFFN will also be hosting guests. Earlier this season, The Athletic’s Alex Barker participated and became the first name on our guest leaderboard, and he has since been joined by Julien Laurens. It’s three points for a correct score, two points for a correct score difference, and one point for a correct result. Who will come out on top at the end of the season?

SCORES

Raphaël: 54

Luke: 53

Bastien: 65

Guest leaderboard:

Alex Barker: 7

Julien Laurens: 7

Game of the week: Olympique Lyonnais v RC Strasbourg Alsace, Sunday 19:45 (UK)

This is perhaps the most intriguing fixture of the gameweek. A week ago, you would have said that Lyon, despite Strasbourg’s obvious strength, would be the strong favourite. However, OL have fallen off in the past couple of games. The loss against Toulouse, which came as a result of a late, late quick-fire brace from Le TéFéCé, was something of a freak result, given how the equaliser came. The defeat against Nice was entirely different. OL had much of the ball but really struggled to do anything with it. They peppered the Nice goal, but most of their shots came from range, and they were dreadfully inefficient inside their own box, conceding a goal from almost every chance that they conceded. It is a far cry from the team that were so comfortably the best defence in the league just two matchdays ago. Before the defeat to Toulouse, Lyon had the best defensive record, having conceded just three in the first seven games, and they had not conceded a single goal with 11 men on the pitch. But they have now conceded five in their last two games. The absence of Moussa Niakhaté, who was only good enough for the bench, having returned late from international duty, made a big difference, and you can now see his importance to the team. You would expect him to return to the starting line-up this weekend, and the hope will be that he can redress the balance of this defence that has lost its way in the last couple of weeks. And it needs to happen from an OL point of view because this is a side that will struggle to score bags of goals, due to their lack of striking options. 

Strasbourg are one of the most in-form sides in the division. Joaquín Panichelli is currently on fire and will be the one that Lyon will have to contain; the Argentine is currently the top scorer in Ligue 1 with seven goals. They will be disappointed not to have held on against PSG, but once again, they proved their ability to compete with the best in Ligue 1. They will be marginal favourites here as a result.

Raphael’s Ligue 1 predictions

Luke’s predictions

Bastien’s predictions

GFFN | Luke Entwistle