4 out of 4 for Juventus
To better measure the difficulty of the task that awaits OL, it suffices to look at the history of the confrontations between Juventus and the French clubs. To be clear, the Old Lady has always qualified in a double knockout elimination in the era of the Champions League against a formation of the Hexagon. This has happened 4 times already. Faced with Nantes in 1996, and against Monaco in 1998, in 2015 and in 2017.
Juventus, only winning opponent at Groupama Stadium in the Champions League
Since Lyon moved to Groupama Stadium at the start of 2016, OL have presented an honorable record in the Champions League in 10 games played there. There were certainly only 2 victories (3-0 against Dinamo Zagreb and 3-1 against Benfica) and many draws. Seven in total. Including those against Seville (0-0), Manchester City (2-2) and Barcelona (0-0). But it will be remembered that there has so far been only one defeat. She intervened on October 18, 2016, facing… Juventus (0-1). At the time, Cuadrado had scored the only goal of the game.
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Lyon not so sovereign at home
To hope to eliminate Juventus, Lyon will have to bet on a positive result this Wednesday during the first leg played at Groupama Stadium. But Lyon's performances at home this season do not necessarily encourage great optimism. In 19 games played in their stadium in all competitions, Jean-Michel Aulas' men only managed to win 8 times. Or a ratio of barely 42%. For the rest, there were 7 draws and 4 defeats.
Juve, 4 defeats since early December
Until December 1, Juventus had had an almost perfect first part of the season. Because, in 19 matches in all competitions, the Italian team had not yet suffered defeat (15 wins, 4 draws). But since then, the situation has changed a little. Its results remain generally positive. But the Turinese have still lost 4 times in 16 games (11 wins, 3 draws). Twice against Lazio (3-1 and 1-3), against Naples (2-1) and against Hellas Verona (2-1).
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Lyon, Ronaldo's last knockout in the round of 16
If Lyon manages to eliminate Juventus, it will create a small cataclysm at the level of the Ronaldo scale in the Champions League. Because the Portuguese is a very regular resident of the quarter-finals of the competition. Since 2006/07, that is to say in the previous 13 editions, the fivefold Ballon d'Or has reached this stage of the competition 12 times. The only exception being his first season with Real Madrid in 2009/10. At that time, the Merengues had been eliminated in the round of 16 by… Lyon (1-0 at Gerland then 1-1 at Bernabeu)!
Ronaldo Scarecrow Always Stacks Goals
Wednesday, the number 1 danger for Lyon will of course be called Cristiano Ronaldo. The 35-year-old Portuguese man shows that age has no control over him and continues to drive the meters away this season. Club and selection combined, he has already scored 36 times in ... 36 matches played. He is already doing better than last season when he had scored 31 times in 47 games. Even more frightening for Lyon, CR7 scored in each of their 9 games played in 2020 (13 goals in total).
Dembélé at the foot of the podium for top scorers in 2020
Lyon does not have Ronaldo in its ranks. But the Rhone club can count on Moussa Dembélé. The 23-year-old striker is also going through a flourishing period at the start of 2020. He has participated in 13 OL matches in all competitions since the start of January. For a total of 10 goals scored. He is just behind the 3 most prolific goal scorers since the start of the calendar year. Namely Cristiano Ronaldo (13 goals), Erling Haaland (12 goals) and Ciro Immobile (11 goals).
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