Lyon host Crystal Palace in the Europa League. Both clubs have had rather different domestic form lately, with Lyon picking up more wins in Ligue 1 than Palace have managed in the Premier League this season.
Both sides opened this season's league phase with a win, though the manner of victory looked very different. That contrast is a decent starting point for working out how each side has approached this competition so far.
Analysis updated .
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Recent form: contrasting pictures
Palace's form across all competitions has been up and down: 8 wins, 4 draws and 8 losses from their last 20 matches, with heavy defeats against Manchester City (1-4) and Fulham (2-3) mixed in among the wins. In Europe, though, they've looked sharper, thrashing Lech Poznan 4-0 in their league-phase opener.
Lyon: 20 completed matches; Crystal Palace: 20 completed matches.
Lyon
- Win
- 55% 11 / 20
- Draw
- 15% 3 / 20
- Loss
- 30% 6 / 20
- Scored
- 41
- Conceded
- 30
- Difference
- +11
Crystal Palace
- Win
- 40% 8 / 20
- Draw
- 20% 4 / 20
- Loss
- 40% 8 / 20
- Scored
- 31
- Conceded
- 33
- Difference
- -2
| League | Home | Away | Date | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ligue 1 | Lyon | Rennes | 19.09.2026 | 4-0 |
| UEFA Europa League | Anderlecht | Lyon | 16.09.2026 | 1-2 |
| Ligue 1 | Paris FC | Lyon | 12.09.2026 | 0-0 |
| Ligue 1 | Lyon | Auxerre | 04.09.2026 | 3-1 |
| Ligue 1 | Lyon | Le Havre | 29.08.2026 | 1-1 |
| UEFA Champions League | Lyon | Fenerbahçe | 26.08.2026 | 1-2 |
| Ligue 1 | Toulouse | Lyon | 22.08.2026 | 0-2 |
| UEFA Champions League | Fenerbahçe | Lyon | 18.08.2026 | 1-1 |
| UEFA Champions League | Lyon | Sparta Praha | 11.08.2026 | 3-0 |
| UEFA Champions League | Sparta Praha | Lyon | 04.08.2026 | 2-1 |
| League | Home | Away | Date | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premier League | Leeds | Crystal Palace | 20.09.2026 | 0-0 |
| UEFA Europa League | Crystal Palace | Lech Poznan | 17.09.2026 | 4-0 |
| Premier League | Crystal Palace | Ipswich | 12.09.2026 | 2-3 |
| League Cup | Crystal Palace | Middlesbrough | 08.09.2026 | 3-0 |
| Premier League | Fulham | Crystal Palace | 05.09.2026 | 2-3 |
| Premier League | Crystal Palace | Manchester City | 28.08.2026 | 1-4 |
| Premier League | Everton | Crystal Palace | 22.08.2026 | 2-0 |
| Friendlies Clubs | SC Freiburg | Crystal Palace | 15.08.2026 | 3-0 |
| Friendlies Clubs | Fulham | Crystal Palace | 07.08.2026 | 1-2 |
| Como Cup | Crystal Palace | Al Ula | 31.07.2026 | 3-1 |
Lyon's Ligue 1 form has been the stronger of the two on paper, 11 wins from 20 games, but their continental form is shakier. They lost 1-2 away to Anderlecht in the league phase and have drawn back-to-back league games against Paris FC and Le Havre most recently.
Palace's European form currently looks sharper than their patchy Premier League results might suggest.
Comparative Team Statistics: Lyon vs Crystal Palace
Head-to-head: barely any history
These two have only met once on record, a pre-season friendly back in August 2023, which Palace won 2-0.
| League | Home | Away | Date | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friendlies Clubs | Crystal Palace | Lyon | 05.08.2023 | 2-0 |
That match is too old, and too low-stakes, to tell us much about how this competitive Europa League tie will go.
Early Europa League table
After one round of league-phase fixtures, Palace sit second with three points off the back of that 4-0 win, while Lyon are down in 11th, also on three points but with a tighter 2-1 scoreline behind them.
| № | Team | Played | Win | Draw | Loss | GF/GA | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juventus | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5/0 | 3 |
| 2 | Crystal Palace | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4/0 | 3 |
| 3 | Sparta Praha | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4/1 | 3 |
| 10 | Bournemouth | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2/1 | 3 |
| 11 | Lyon | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2/1 | 3 |
| 12 | Torreense | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2/1 | 3 |
It's only one match each, so these placings will move quickly, but the difference in goal difference is worth flagging this early on.
Key player statistics: Lyon vs Crystal Palace
Squad lists and player details
Squad and player details
| Name | Country | Age | Position | Height | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinton Mata | Angola | 33 | Defender | 180 | 72 |
| L. Openda | Belgium | 26 | Attacker | 177 | 75 |
| C. Tolisso | France | 32 | Attacker | 181 | 81 |
| N. Tagliafico | Argentina | 34 | Defender | 172 | 67 |
| A. Maitland-Niles | England | 29 | Midfielder | 177 | 71 |
| F. Bacher | Austria | 25 | Defender | 190 | 82 |
| Abner | Brazil | 26 | Attacker | 182 | 75 |
| R. Descamps | France | 30 | Goalkeeper | 194 | 74 |
| O. Mangala | Belgium | 28 | Midfielder | 178 | 80 |
| M. Niakhaté | Senegal | 30 | Defender | 190 | 82 |
| Keito Nakamura | Japan | 26 | Attacker | 180 | 73 |
| D. Greif | Slovakia | 29 | Goalkeeper | 197 | 82 |
| P. Šulc | Czechia | 25 | Midfielder | 177 | 76 |
| T. Tessmann | USA | 25 | Defender | 188 | 86 |
| M. Bidstrup | Denmark | 25 | Midfielder | 175 | 75 |
| T. Morton | England | 23 | Midfielder | 182 | 75 |
| R. Kluivert | Netherlands | 25 | Defender | 187 | 70 |
| J. Bengui João | France | 21 | Goalkeeper | 190 | 76 |
| E. Nuamah | Ghana | 22 | Attacker | 178 | 71 |
| M. Fofana | Belgium | 21 | Attacker | 169 | 61 |
| Name | Country | Age | Position | Height | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E. Nketiah | England | 27 | Attacker | 175 | 72 |
| J. Strand Larsen | Norway | 26 | Attacker | 193 | 79 |
| I. Sarr | Senegal | 28 | Attacker | 185 | 76 |
| J. Lerma | Colombia | 31 | Midfielder | 179 | 70 |
| T. Tomiyasu | Japan | 27 | Defender | 187 | 84 |
| D. Kamada | Japan | 30 | Midfielder | 184 | 76 |
| B. Chilwell | England | 29 | Defender | 178 | 77 |
| C. Doucouré | Mali | 26 | Midfielder | 180 | 73 |
| D. Muñoz | Colombia | 30 | Midfielder | 180 | 73 |
| W. Hughes | England | 31 | Midfielder | 185 | 74 |
| D. McNeil | England | 26 | Attacker | 183 | 68 |
| D. Henderson | England | 29 | Goalkeeper | 188 | 85 |
| R. Matthews | England | 32 | Goalkeeper | 184 | 78 |
| A. Disasi | France | 28 | Defender | 190 cm | 83 kg |
| W. Benítez | Argentina | 33 | Goalkeeper | 191 | 91 |
| J. Mateta | France | 29 | Attacker | 192 | 88 |
| B. Sosa | Croatia | 28 | Defender | 187 | 79 |
| Q. Timber | Netherlands | 25 | Midfielder | 179 | 71 |
| C. Richards | USA | 26 | Defender | 188 | 87 |
| E. Guessand | France | 25 | Attacker | 185 | 79 |
There are some interesting threads here, Palace's strong European start against Lyon's stronger domestic form, but nothing firm enough yet to build a confident pick around, and without a market to reference there's no selection to make.
We'd rather wait for a bigger sample of league-phase games, and a quoted market, before committing to a view on this one.
Who will win?
