Lyon vs Crystal Palace Prediction, Tips and Odds | Europa League

Pierre Sage takes Crystal Palace back to the club that gave him his first senior management job, a reunion that comes with Lyon sitting fourth in Ligue 1 and Palace having won three of their last five matches across all competitions.

Sage was sacked by Lyon in January 2025 before rebuilding his reputation at Lens and taking over at Selhurst Park in June, and Thursday’s trip to the Groupama Stadium pits his in-form Palace side against the club he once managed, in the second match of the Europa League league phase.

Lyon vs Crystal Palace: preview and form guide

Crystal Palace sit twelfth in the Premier League with seven points from six matches, a modest return that undersells how they have actually been playing.

Sage’s side have won three of their last five across all competitions, including a 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest last weekend against a side managed by his own predecessor at Palace, Oliver Glasner.

That run also features a 4-0 opening win over Lech Poznan in the league phase, enough to put Palace above Lyon in the table heading into Thursday despite the gap in domestic form.

Sage arrives with pedigree at this level of his own, having led Lens to a Ligue 1 runners-up finish and a Coupe de France win before taking the Selhurst Park job in June, a campaign good enough to earn him Ligue 1’s manager of the year award.

Palace have not been especially tight at the back this season, demonstrated with 12 goals conceded in six league games, though they have conceded just once in their last three matches.

Lyon sit fourth in Ligue 1 on 11 points from six games, just three points off leaders Monaco, and share the division’s best defensive record with only four goals conceded.

Their one blemish of the month is a 2-1 defeat at Lens, a match that left Lois Openda facing several weeks out with a fractured fibula.

Paulo Fonseca, in charge since the end of January 2025, has built that defensive stability around a back line that has kept two clean sheets in this five-game sample, including a 4-0 win over Rennes at home.

Ernest Nuamah has been Lyon’s standout attacker in that run, with three goals and an assist across his last five Ligue 1 starts and an average match rating of 7.51.

Fonseca’s side opened their own European campaign with a 2-1 win at Anderlecht and will be looking for a second straight league-phase win here, even with Openda unavailable to lead the line.

Team news and predicted lineups: Lyon vs Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace

Palace’s own Europa League squad list has caused more disruption than their injury list this week, with Lerma joining Evann Guessand, Remi Matthews, Cheick Doucoure, Matheus Franca and Zavier Gozo among the players left out of UEFA registration entirely.

Guessand, an Ivory Coast international on a fresh loan from Aston Villa, is the most eye-catching of those omissions, and he has no route into this season’s European campaign unless Palace advance far enough to revise their squad list in January.

Axel Disasi is available despite his recent suspension, which was shown for a red card in the Premier League and carries no weight in European competition, making him the direct replacement for Lerma in Sage’s back three.

Tomiyasu, Henderson and Mateta are all out through injury, with each of their expected return dates falling the day after this fixture, so none is considered close enough to be risked from the start.

There is better news in attack, where Ismaila Sarr is back to full fitness after a groin problem and available for selection on the wing.

Seven players in total were left off Palace’s Europa League squad list for this season, and the club cannot revise that list until the winter transfer window closes in January, by which point this match and four more league-phase fixtures will already be done.

Crystal Palace predicted lineup vs Lyon

3-4-2-1: Benitez; Richards, Canvot, Disasi; Khalaili, Wharton, Timber, Mitchell; Kamada, Pino; Strand Larsen.

Lyon

Fonseca is without three first-team options, starting with Niakhate, who picked up a hamstring issue on international duty with Senegal.

Ouedraogo’s season is over for now after an ACL tear, and Openda’s fractured fibula rules him out for several more weeks, leaving Lyon light on attacking depth as well as defensive cover.

All three absentees were present in the win against Anderlecht, meaning Fonseca’s starting 11 will undergo a significant change from the matchday one victory, including Pavel Sulc starting as the central striker in Openda’s absence.

Lyon predicted lineup vs Crystal Palace

4-3-3: Greif; Athekame, Bacher, Kluivert, Abner; Tolisso, Bidstrup, Morton; Nuamah, Sulc, Nakamura.

Head-to-head: Lyon vs Crystal Palace

Thursday is the first competitive meeting between Lyon and Crystal Palace, which is unusual for a tie of this profile at European level.

The clubs have met once before, in a pre-season friendly on 5 August 2023 that Palace won 2-0 through goals from Jeffrey Schlupp and Odsonne Edouard, with Maxence Caqueret and Nicolas Tagliafico both booked for Lyon.

That result carries no weight here given its age and its friendly status, but the two clubs do share a more recent link: both were previously part of John Textor’s multi-club ownership group, a connection that briefly threatened Palace’s European eligibility before UEFA ruled in their favour.

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• Lyon: Full time result
• Yes: Both teams to score
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Our Lyon vs Crystal Palace prediction and tips

Odds correct as of Wednesday, 14 October 2026, 13:30 BST.