Olympique Lyonnais vs Barcelona : 5 talking points ahead of Champions League first leg
The Champions League Round of 16 has begun and on Tuesday, Barcelona travel to face Olympique Lyonnais at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon. It is surely going to be an exciting tie as both the teams did pretty well in the group stages and will be looking forward to win the tie.
Barcelona were on top of a considerably tough group by defeating Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan. Ivan Rakitic, Ousmanne Dembele and Lionel Messi were some of the stars that shined.
Lyon on the other hand had an easier group and finished second behind Manchester City. The French outfit defeated City at the Etihad Stadium and drew at their home soil. Nabil Fekir, Memphis Depay and Moussa Dembele were among the best players.
#5 Barcelona's shaky defence
This season, Barcelona's defense has looked vulnerable. They have always leaked goals at the back. With Samuel Umtiti injured for the most of the season, Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet both had to take care of the back. Barcelona just kept 2 clean sheets in the group stages and made many unnecessary errors.
Thomas Vermaelen has suffered a knock recently and will be out for this match, but the good news for Barcelona is the return of Umtiti. Though Umtiti may not be in the starting XI, he will be travelling to his former club Lyon.
The game is going to be controlled by the leader of Barcelona's defense, Pique, who has looked good for the past few games. But since he has played each and every game in the league and has not been rested, he might look tired on the pitch.
#4 The forwards of Lyon
Lyon have been pretty good in terms of scoring goals and their forwards this season have scored in each game of the group stage.
Depay and Dembele will lead the attack and will surely like to counter Barcelona's defense. Both the France internationals are in good form and have extraordinary pace and shooting ability that will surely test Barcelona keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Home advantage should really help Lyon and they would hope to score lots of goals.
