Sunday 10/08/2014, 17:00, France Ligue 1, Round 1, Lyon vs Rennes

Lyon vs Rennes Preview

While other teams decided to rest their players after the regular season ended, Lyon played plenty of games, including several Europa League qualifiers. Luckily for them, these games went much better than the friendly matches, with the French side being just one step away from making the group stage. Despite the busy schedule, they should find the resources to push for a home win in the opening match of France Ligue 1, against Rennes.

Lyon vs Rennes Odds

At Bet365

Lyon 1.80, Draw 3.40, Rennes 4.75

Lyon vs Rennes Tips

The hosts seem to be on a scoring spree, after finding their way to the net in three of the last four games and scoring a total of 10 goals over that span. They made short work of Czech Republic's Mlada Boleslav and won both legs en route to an easy qualification to the next stage.

They will be playing against Romanians Astra two weeks from now, which means that they have plenty of time to focus at the task at hand. The top priority is to debut with a victory in the domestic championship and except for a couple of absentees, they have no reasons of concern.

Kone is still serving a game of suspension following the incident involving him in the last match of the regular season, while Gourcouff, Bedimo and Fofana are all mending injuries. The former is particularly difficult to replace, but it looks like manager Fournier found a way of maintaining the same level of play without him.

The visitors had a rather disappointing season last year and failed to win the French Cup after being defeated once again by Guingamp. The friendly games didn't went much better and the fact that they are still winless in more than a month doesn't bode well with their expectations for 2015. Winning on the road at Lyon is not going to be easy and the visitors are very likely to try and defend the scoreless draw.

Key Facts

• Lyon is on a scoring spree despite their absentees, while Rennes struggles heavily with two players suspended and one sidelined
• In 20 games played at home, Lyon won eight times while nine matches ended undecided

Lyon vs Rennes Prediction

The numbers are stacked against the visiting team, but Rennes will be trying to secure its 10th draw in Lyon tonight, so they won't take many chances upfront. Bookmakers are reluctant to overprice the home side following their impressive run the European competitions, so the most punters can hope to get is 1.80

Bet: Lyon @ 1.80 with Bet365