Olympique Lyonnais coach Peter Bosz has issued a rallying cry to his players ahead of Le Derby against Saint-Étienne at the Groupama Stadium on Friday.
Olympique Lyonnais - AS Saint-Étienne
- kick-off: 20:00
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Lyon had drawn four consecutive Ligue 1 Uber Eats games before last Sunday's 1-0 win over ESTAC Troyes at the Stade de l'Aube. - sealed thanks to Moussa Dembélé's 33rd-minute penalty - slipping outside of the top half of the table in the process.
Les Gones remain just five points from the European places and with a 12-point cushion on the relegation spots, but for a side which finished fourth last season, fans might feel entitled to expect much better than their current league position of 11th.
Benzema back?
Club chairman Jean-Michel Aulas this week reiterated his desire to see free-scoring Real Madrid and France forward Karim Benzema return to the club, while Bosz shot down any suggestion that left-back Emerson Palmieri would make an early return to parent club Chelsea.
Neither will feature on Friday, illness seeing Emerson join fellow defenders Jason Denayer and Sinaly Diomandé on the sidelines, but Bosz can still put out a strong side and he expects them to perform.
Watch: Highlights of Lyon's 1-0 win at Troyes
"It's always a special match, irrespective of league position," he said. "In the reverse fixture, in Saint-Étienne, they were already struggling, and we should've won. I expect a lot more. For example, the game against Troyes should've been put to bed. We weren't good with our final ball and would've scored much more if we had been."
Rayan Cherki has been agitating for more minutes, but Lucas Paqueta and Houssem Aouar are likely to be the players providing the ammunition for Dembélé in the final third. Jérôme Boateng is a booking away from a suspension but will line up at the heart of OL's defence here.
Saint-Étienne haven't beaten Lyon since October 2019, when Robert Beric, most recently of Chicago Fire, scored in a 1-0 win for les Verts at their Stade Geoffroy-Guichard. Recent history hasn't been much kinder, either, with ASSE rooted to the foot of the table since Round 8.
Green shoots
Pascal Dupraz replaced Claude Puel as coach in December, and although he has lost his two league games since - 1-0 to FC Nantes and then last Saturday's 2-1 reverse at RC Lens - there have been shoots of promise from a team who are currently six points adrift from safety.
Paul Bernardoni, Sada Thioub and Joris Gnagnon have arrived during a busy winter transfer window for the club, and Thioub in particular impressed last weekend. The former Angers SCO man was lively on the right-hand side and ASSE were only a 95th-minute Seko Fofana wonder-goal away from a share of the points.
Watch: Highlights of Saint-Étienne's 2-1 loss to Lens
Dupraz is expected to name a similar side to the one that started against Lens, although his hand is somewhat forced with Wahbi Khazri, Denis Bouanga, Harold Moukoudi, Yvan Neyou and Saïdou Sow all on Africa Cup of Nations duty in Cameroon.
"My wife's in Australia seeing our daughter so at my hotel, I've been watching AFCON," he explained in an interview with regional newspaper Le Progrès. "There's an eccentric side to it that I like, and of course Khazri's there.
Optimism
"I see the glass as half-empty," he then explained, looking ahead to the remainder of the domestic season. "It's never half-full. But if there's not enough, I'll always put more in. At least it's never empty."
Dupraz might need such a positive outlook against Sainté's bitter rivals on Friday. As well as his international call-ups, the coach is without first-choice goalkeeper Étienne Green (elbow), attackers Arnaud Nordin (groin) and Romain Hamouma (thigh) as well as left-back Miguel Trauco (COVID).
Lyon: Lopes; Da Silva, Boateng, Lukeba; Gusto, Caqueret, Guimaraes, Dubois; Paqueta, Aouar; Dembélé
Saint-Étienne: Bernardoni; Maçon, Bakayoko, Nadé, Kolodziejczak, Silva; Thioub, Camara, Youssouf, Aouchiche; Boudebouz
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