Celta – Lyon

The home team will not concede to a Ligue 1 opponent.

In the Spanish city of Vigo, the first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 between Celta Vigo and Lyon will take place. It can be said with certainty that both teams were roughly equally unlucky with the draw. The local crowd had not yet cooled off from their club's clash with Real Madrid, which took place last Friday. The royal club arrived in Vigo without half of its starting XI and had to go all out for a win after two consecutive La Liga defeats. Not without questions for the referee of that match, but the capital club managed to edge Celta at 90+3. Vigo's club, operating at moderate tempo, played the Europa League group stage with a focus more on the Spanish championship. Finishing sixteenth in the Europa League group stage meant they had to fight for a playoff place with Greek PAOK. This task was solved by Celta with wins over the opponent both at home and away. Lyon is having its best season in years. This is evident from the team's results both domestically and in Europe. A large portion of Olympique's group-stage results came in winning streaks, which allowed them to finish first in the table, ahead of the tournament's obvious favorite Aston Villa on tiebreakers. Bookmakers pegged the home side as the favorites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 2.11 on their victory. Celta's painful defeat to Real Madrid does not in any way reflect the team's form. Before the match against Real Madrid, Vigo had won four in a row. Their last defeat prior to last Friday came a month earlier, when Celta were beaten by Osasuna. In La Liga, Claudio Hiraldeza's team sits in sixth place, which affords them a chance to participate in European competitions next season. Lyon had extended their winning run across all competitions to thirteen games by mid-February, but then hit a rough spell. Even last season, away losses to Strasbourg and Marseille, as well as a cup exit in the quarterfinals, would not have drawn much attention, but now the expectations on this team are higher. The visitors will not win in Vigo.