Lyon's greatly improved form looks to get another milestone when they meet with a Lens side who have also managed to turn things around drastically in the past four months, and Forebet is here to group together the analysis for our football predictions.
The data at the start of the season for these two sides read very badly. The two were facing trends of hitting the headlines in France for a genuine relegation fight, as Lens could not stop losing, while Lyon sat down in 17th for some time.
Now, however, Lens have stunningly jumped into sixth with them losing only two games in 2024. This has seen them suffer home defeats to Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco, as the latter defeated them following goals from Elye Wahi and Wesley Said.
#OLRCL this Sunday 🔴🔵 pic.twitter.com/D66NQfHAaK— Olympique Lyonnais 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@OL_English) February 29, 2024
#OLRCL this Sunday 🔴🔵 pic.twitter.com/D66NQfHAaK
Lens managed to draw 1-1 with Reims before this and also drew with Freiburg in the Europa League playoff leg one.
However, a loss in Germany to the Bundesliga outfit now means they are out of Europe this season and their aims for the rest of 2023/24 are solely on getting back into Europe for next season after finishing second in 2022/23.
This topsy-turvy run of late means the last win for Lens was in a 3-1 victory over Strasbourg, as Wahi and David Costa scored before Florian Sotoca netted for the club.
They've also managed to beat Nantes and Toulouse in the past few weeks, but it was their excellent winning form in December that saw them catapult up the league table.
Lens would beat Clermont Foot, draw with Montpellier and also beat Reims and even take all three points off Lyon in their last meeting during that month.
Jake O'Brien did score twice from centre-back for Lyon in that game, but the headlines were stolen by Said and a brace from Przemslaw Frankowski.
Although Lyon's form hasn't been as impressive as Lens' in terms of getting them right behind the European race, they are still into the French Cup semi-finals after a midweek penalty shootout win over Strasbourg.
Alexandre Lacazette and co. also managed to beat Metz 2-1 away from home last time out to put the club on a three-game winning run in Ligue 1 after a derby win over Marseille and victories over Montpellier and Nice.
Once again, Lacazette scored last time out, while Said Benrahma also got his first Ligue 1 goals. Lacazette, however, now has 12 goals in the league.
Forebet predicts a win for Lens and under 2.5 goals.