Following some disappointing results in Europe of late, Lyon start their campaign from the 3rd qualifying round, battling Swiss giants Grasshoppers for a place in the play-offs.

Les Gones have been far from impressive in last year’s Ligue 1 campaign, but they somehow managed to hold off challenge from Nice, Saint Etienne and Lille to clinch the final Champions League berth.

The club officials haven’t been too active in the summer transfer window, with Miguel Lopes and Gael Danic arriving and Dejan Lovren the only important player to have left the club.

The most important thing is that the French giants managed to hold on to key players Lisandro, Grenier and Gonalons in spite of the heavy interest from top European clubs.

Lyon have done pretty well during pre-season, sharing spoils with Pogon Szczecin and New York Red Bulls, and defeating Jeonbuk Hyundai before playing out an entertaining 2-2 draw with Real Madrid.

With Grasshoppers next on agenda, les Gones can be backed at 1.36 (4/11) at BetVictor to continue the promising run of results.

Boss Remi Garde has no fresh injury worries, but Bafetimbi Gomis and Jimmy Briand are not in contention as they seek a move away from the club.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): A. Lopes – M. Lopez, Bisevac, Umtiti, Dabo – Malbranque, Gonalons, Grenier – Lacazette, Lisandro, Danic.

Having won the last of their 27 league titles in 2003, Grasshoppers have been in all sorts of problems over the last decade, but they seem to be slowly returning to the right track.

GCZ narrowly missed out on the Swiss league title last term, ending the campaign just three points behind rivals FC Basel.

The club management haven’t quite succeeded in giving the team a fair chance of reaching the Champions League group stages, as they couldn’t prevent the likes of Steven Zuber, Taulant Xhaka, Mohamed Coulibaly and Joao Paiva from leaving this summer.

Meanwhile, they have appointed Michael Skibbe as the new boss, while signing Steven Lang and Johan Vonlanthen, who had agreed to come out of retirement.

Grasshoppers have already played three league fixtures this term, defeating St Gallen and Aarau, while sharing spoils with title rivals Basel, but they are no less than 9.50 (17/2) with bet365 to triumph at Stade Gerland.

New boss Michael Skibbe has the courtesy of picking from a fully fit squad, with Nassim Ben Khalifa set to start as a lone striker.

Probable starting line-up (4-1-4-1): Burki – M. Lang, Vilotic, Grichting, Pavlovic – Salatic – Hajrovic, Toko, Abrashi, Gashi – Ben Khalifa.

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