Lyon v Roma facts
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Article summary
Undefeated away from home in Europe this season, Roma visit a Lyon side who scored 11 against AZ Alkmaar in qualifying for the UEFA Europa League round of 16.
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Ten years after meeting in the UEFA Champions League round of 16, Lyon and Roma come together once again with a place in the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals at stake.
Previous meetings
• The clubs went head to head in the last 16 of the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League, Roma progressing with a 2-0 win in France following a 0-0 draw at the Stadio Olimpico. Francesco Totti – still with Roma – scored the opening goal, Brazilian winger Mancini hitting the second before the break.
• Lyon have faced Italian opponents in 20 UEFA games with the record: W7 D5 L8 (W3 D3 L4 at home – W4 D2 L4 in Italy).
• Roma's nine encounters with French sides have ended W5 D3 L1 (W2 D3 in Rome – W3 L1 in France).
Form guide
• Lyon's record in four UEFA home games at their new Stade de Lyon is W2 D1 L1.
• Roma are unbeaten in five European away fixtures this season: W2 D3.
• Lyon have yet to participate in a major UEFA final but were UEFA Champions League semi-finalists as recently as 2009/10 and reached the last four of the 1963/64 European Cup Winners' Cup.
• Losing European Cup finalists in 1984, and UEFA Cup finalists in 1991, Roma went as far as the UEFA Champions League round of 16 last season.
Links and trivia
• The journey from Rome to Lyon is around 750km.
• Lyon's Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa spent 2014/15 with Roma, scoring once in 28 Serie A games, before joining Les Gones.
• Midfielder Clément Grenier joined Roma on loan from Lyon in January but has not been included in their UEFA Europa League squad.
• Roma's Edin Džeko and Giuliano from eliminated Zenit top the 2016/17 UEFA Europa League scorers' table with eight goals each. Džeko's have come in 344 minutes of football – a goal every 43 minutes, on average.
• Džeko (31) and team-mate Federico Fazio (30) celebrate birthdays on 17 March, the day after the second leg of this tie.
• Lyon's Maxime Gonalons turns 28 on 10 March, the day after the first leg.
• Lyon's Nicolas Nkoulou scored in the Africa Cup of Nations final for Cameroon in February as the Lions defeated an Egypt side featuring Roma's Mohamed Salah. Salah could make his 50th UEFA competition appearance in this game.
• Roma forward Stephan El Shaarawy played in Ligue 1 with Monaco in the first half of last season but spent only three minutes on the pitch when his side faced Lyon in a 1-1 draw on 16 October 2015.
• Lyon's women's team are the reigning European champions and are still in contention for the 2016/17 title. No club has won men's and women's UEFA titles in the same campaign.
The coaches
• Bruno Génésio took charge at Lyon in December 2015, but his links to the club go back much further. A local boy, he joined OL as a trainee in 1983 and represented Lyon as a midfielder from 1985 to 1995. He later worked as a scout and was assistant coach from 2011 to 2015.
• Luciano Spalletti returned to Roma in January 2016 after five years in Russia with Zenit, where he claimed two championships. He lifted the Coppa Italia twice with Roma between 2005 and 2009, having first made his name leading unfancied Udinese to fourth place in Serie A in 2004/05.