Lyon vs Brest

Lyon’s 2021/22 Ligue 1 season gets underway at the Groupama Stadium as they take on last season’s relegation fighters Brest in the curtain-raiser.

After falling one place short of the Champions League spots last season, Lyon will be keen to make one better this term. Remarkably, ‘Les Gones’ are unbeaten 17 consecutive Ligue 1 opening fixtures (W14, D3), having gone winless in their previous 16 such contests beforehand (D8, L8). Interestingly, this will be Lyon’s 100th Ligue 1 match at the Groupama Stadium, with the home side boasting a resounding 79.8% win/draw rate in such games so far (W60, D19, L20). Peter Bosz, who replaced Rudi Garcia in the dugout this summer, will be looking to maintain Lyon’s run of 18 straight top-flight fixtures in which they found the net. It could be an uphill task, as the club lost standout performer Memphis Depay to Barcelona in the summer. The Dutchman was directly involved in 39.51% of Lyon’s Ligue 1 goals last term.

Visitors Brest finished just one point and one place above the relegation territory in 2020/21 thanks to an underwhelming end of the season that saw them fail to win any of their final four Ligue 1 matches (D1, L3). Couple that with the fact Brest’s previous eight opening games of a new top-flight season have returned zero wins (D4, L4), and a promising start to the 2021/22 campaign looks unlikely. What’s more, Michel Der Zakarian’s men have claimed just one victory in their last 13 away Ligue 1 outings (D4, L8), conceding 2+ goals 53.85% of those clashes. Moreover, ‘Les Pirates’ have failed to beat Lyon in any of their nine Ligue 1 away H2Hs overall (D2, L7), drawing a blank in four of their last six top-flight trips to the Groupama Stadium.