Ligue 1: Lyon v Caen Odds and Betting Preview

LYON, FRANCE - Fourth-placed Lyon take on Caen this afternoon at the Stade Gerland looking to make up ground on both Montpellier and PSG, knowing that any result barring a home win will seriously scupper their chance of finishing in the Champions League spots. 

Lyon go into the match as overwhelming favourites, and can be backed at best odds of 4/9 with Coral to rack up a win in 90 minutes. A draw would not go down well with the home fans at 7/2 with Blue Square, whilst an unlikely away win for relegation-threatened Caen can be backed at 9/1 with Bet Victor and bet365.

Remi Garde’s Lyon side are unbeaten in their previous five matches in all competitions, and showed great character to fight back from a 2-0 deficit at Marseille to earn a 2-2 draw. Lyon will certainly approach Caen throwing caution to the wind with regards to their star players, as Tuesday’s Champions League match against APOEL F.C. could well define the rest of their season, especially considering that Lyon are 10 points off PSG in Ligue 1, who are showing no signs of stopping under new boss Carlo Ancelotti. Clement Grenier continues to star for Les Gones, along with youngster Alexandre Lacazette, so once again Garde must decide whether to start with Gourcuff in midfield or keep the expensive flop on the bench.

Caen have no worries about expensive flops, Champions League or title aspirations - they lie seventeenth in the table and only one point off rock bottom. A defeat at Lyon, which looks on the cards, would almost certainly send them into the red zone. Franck Dumas’ side are win-less in their previous 11 visits to Lyon in Ligue 1, and it is hard to make a case for them picking up points today, although they did hold Lyon to a 0-0 back in May, but meanwhile Lyon have almost certainly improved under their new coach. Caen’s best player Romain Hamouma has only scored one goal in 20 appearances this season, and their leading scorer away from home has been young French defender Thomas Heurtaux with three goals.

The favourite scorelines are 1-0 and 2-0 to Lyon, which can both be backed at 6/1 with William Hill. Hugo Lloris probably will not have a huge amount of work today between the Lyon sticks, so 3-0 is another option at 9/1 with Coral. Caen may come to Lyon with hopes over another 0-0, but that is hard to fancy at 11/1 with Bet Victor. A 1-1 draw can be found at 17/2 with 188bet, whilst 2-1 to Lyon is into 7/1 with bet365, who will refund losing correct score bets if the match finishes goal-less. Caen are really up against it here, despite playing a side that will be tired from playing in all the cups, and 2-0 to the visitors is at an impossible 50/1 with Irish firm Paddy Power.

The first goalscorer betting revolves around the ‘big two’ - namely Gomis and Lisandro. Punters should probably hold fire until the starting XI is named by Remi Garde, but Lisandro heads the market at 3/1 with Paddy Power and bwin. Gomis has scored five league goals at home this season and looks the best bet if Lisandro Lopez starts on the bench at 9/2 with bet365, whilst man-of-the-moment Lacazette is difficult to rule out at 7/1 with Paddy Power. Caen’s best chance is through young Livio Nbab, who is very athletic, but priced accurately at 18/1 with Sky Bet in the market.

Lyon are 11/10 with Coral to lead at both half-time and full-time in the Ligue 1 encounter and ‘both teams to score’ can be backed at a high of 5/4 with Stan James.

The match kicks-off at 3.00pm local time on Saturday 11 Februrary which is 2.00pm in the UK. It can be seen on the excellent bet365 live streaming service.

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