H2H: Zenit St Petersburg vs Lyon – Prediction (Champions League

Preview and Teams Comparison.

Zenit St Petersburg’s 2-0 home loss versus RB Leipzig in their last UEFA Champions League (UCL) outing put an end to a 16-game unbeaten run at Saint-Petersburg Stadium in all competitions (W13, D3). In fact, that result bore some significance, as four of Zenit’s last five UCL home fixtures have been settled by a two-goal margin. Impressively, 11 of their 13 competitive home victories across that period were achieved by at least a -1 handicap. Additionally, the hosts can take confidence from the fact they are unbeaten in their six historical European home fixtures versus French opposition (W4, D2), which includes a 3-1 win vs Lyon in 2015.

The visitors come into this game after losing just two of their previous 15 UCL fixtures (W4, D9), and the fact they’ve found the net in each of their last eight UCL road trips will surely bring confidence to their fans. Here, they will hope to gain the edge in their balanced competitive H2H away record against Russian opposition (W1, D2, L1). When bringing domestic form into consideration, Lyon travel here with just one win from their previous six Ligue 1 (L1) road trips (D2, L3), with each of those four win/loss games being settled by a one-goal margin.

Players to watch: Zenit’s top league scorer Artem Dzyuba (ten league goals) netted the opener within five minutes in the last H2H held here. Lyon’s Moussa Dembélé leads the L1 scoring charts with ten goals – seven of which arrived before half-time.

Stat attack: Zenit have not drawn any of their last eight UCL home matches (W5, L3). Lyon’s last six UCL away games saw the opener scored within the first 30 minutes. Zenit were leading 1-0 at half-time in each of the three previous UCL H2Hs.