Rising to the French Championship, Lyon are aiming to end their negative series on Thursday, February 15, in their debut in the second phase of the Europa League 2017/2018 version. At Parc Olympique Lyonnais, they host Villarreal, who also face a poor start. The game starts scheduled for 18:05 (Brasília time).
From now on, all stages of the tournament will be set in round-robin games until the two finalists are known. In case of equality of number of points conquered at the end of the two matches, the tiebreaker to be made according to the goal balance or the number of goals scored away from home. The second match between Villarreal and Lyon was scheduled for February 22 in Spain.

Lyon’s recent performance

On Sunday, February 11, at home, Lyon were beaten by Rennes 2-0 in a match for the twenty-fifth round of the French Championship. It was his third straight loss. Thus, the team fell from the second to the fourth position. It is parked in the 48 points (14 wins, six draws and five losses). Outside the qualifying zone for the Champions League, they are now five points off the bench compared to Monaco, who took the lead.
The bad phase was not complete only because between the games of Ligue 1 Lyon managed to advance in the Glass of France. When they defeated Montpellier, away from home, 2-1, they qualified for the quarterfinals. Again as a visitor, he will face Caen on March 1st.
In the Europa League, the team also showed irregularity in the first phase. He was second in Group E with 11 points (three wins, two draws and a loss), beating Everton (four) and Apolon (three), but behind Atalanta (14).
For the duel of this Thursday, coach Bruno Genésio has only one doubt. Brazilian right-back Rafael (12 matches in the 2017/2018 French Championship, one goal) is in the medical department. He recovers from a knee injury that took him out of his last three games. It depends on the new evaluation to know if it can be available.

The current form of Villarreal

Villarreal finished the first phase of the Europa League in a better situation than Lyon, although it obtained the same score. In his case, the 11 points (three wins, two draws and a loss) were enough to put him in the lead of group A overtaking Astana (ten), Slavia Prague (eight) and Maccabi Tel Aviv (four).
In the Spanish Championship, however, the performance is lower. On Sunday, February 11, at home, the team was beaten by Alaves. It was his second defeat in LaLiga. On the previous day, by the same score, he had lost to Betis in Seville. With 37 points (11 wins, four draws and eight losses), he is in fifth place, also outside the qualifying zone for the next edition of the Champions League.
In addition to trying to reverse the negative phase, coach Javier Calleja has bruising problems to manage. They are in the infirmary reserve keeper Andres Fernandes (two performances in the Spanish Championship 2017/2018); defender Ruben Semedo (four games, no goal); midfielder Roberto Soriano (13 matches, no goal); and attackers Nicola Sansone (nine games, three goals) and Leonardo Suárez (a game, no goals).

History of the matches Lyon vs Villarreal
The teams faced each other only once. In a friendly held in 2015, Villarreal won 2-0.

Although the phase is not good for both, Lyon showed throughout the season capacity to produce better quality football than Villarreal. This way, it ends up being the best option of guess for the confrontation of this Thursday. It has a price of 1.85 in Bet365. Draw presents prize of 3.40 and Spanish victory yields 4.33 for each real bet. Quotes were in effect at 17:40 on 12/2/2018.

– Lyon win @ 1.85
– DRAW @ 3.40
– Villarreal win @ 4.33