West Ham United prepare for another historic night in Europe as they welcome Ligue 1 side Olympique Lyonnais to East London on Thursday night for the Europa League quarter-final first leg. David Moyes side will be looking to put the Irons in the best possible position as they look for their first European semi-final in 42 years.
The Irons are the favourites ahead of the clash at the London Stadium with Betfred pricing them at evens while Lyon are 5/2 and a draw is 23/10. The bookies are placing the London club behind Spanish giants Barcelona (6/4) and Bundesliga side RB Leipzig (3/1) at 6/1 to lift the trophy too - tipping them to progress through to the semi-finals at least.
Moyes' side will be looking to their dream European campaign after overcoming Sevilla 1-0 down on aggregate thanks to Andriy Yarmolenko's winner in the second leg. Sending the most successful team in the competition would have been a huge boost for the Irons and a meet up against a Lyon side in mediocre form will help, on paper.
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Peter Bosz's side currently sit ninth in Ligue 1 with 10 points separating 4th and 11th with eight matches to go in the French domestic league season. A late winner from Tete over Angers at the weekend may well have hoped their push for European qualification this season but they have rarely put on a strong run of form to ensure this.
They managed to hold Porto to a 1-1 draw at home in the round of 16 second leg to win 2-1 on aggregate but they will need to be on their best to have a fighting chance of overcoming a West Ham side knocking on the Champions League door.
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Team stats
Both sides in matches involving West Ham have scored in 24 matches out of 45 in all competitions including just once in Europa League while for Lyon it is 23 from 38 including four in Europe. Both teams to score is 8/11.
The Irons have finished 23 matches in all competitions with three or more goals including two matches in Europa League this season while for Lyon it is 18 including four in their European campaign this season. Under 2.5 goals is 5/6.
Players to watch
Said Benrahma, Declan Rice and Yarmolenko are the notable goalscorers for the Irons in the Europa League with seven goals between them. Yarmolenko's winner sealed West Ham's place into the quarter-finals and I have a feeling he could well come back to put a dent on Lyon's hopes.
For Lyon, the threats of Moussa Dembele, Lucas Paqueta and Karl Toko Ekambi will be hard to ignore with 34 goal involvements between them. Dembele will particularly be feeling confident after scoring a brace in their weekend win against Angers while Tete secured the winner in the five-goal thriller.
H2H
This will be the first time West Ham and Lyon have met in their history and only the third time the Hammers have faced French opposition. The Irons met FC Metz in the Intertoto Cup in 1999.
For Lyon, this will be the 10th English club they will face in their history. They played English teams 23 times in their history picking up eight wins, eight draws and seven losses. They have only picked up one win - against Tottenham Hotspur - in six matches against clubs from London.
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