Lyon vs Porto: UEFA Europa League background, form guide, previous meetings

Lyon, the team with the best record in this season's UEFA Europa League group stage, host Portuguese league leaders Porto in the second leg of their round of 16 tie holding a 1-0 advantage.

• Lyon cruised through UEFA Europa League Group A, ensuring top spot in a section containing Rangers, Sparta Praha and Brøndby with two games to spare and dropping points only in their final fixture, a 1-1 home draw with the Scottish champions, who finished eight points adrift as runners-up.

• Porto failed to make it five successive qualifications from the UEFA Champions League group stage in the autumn as they lost their final Group B fixture at home to Atlético de Madrid, who consequently went through at their expense. Instead Sérgio Conceição's team moved across to the UEFA Europa League, where they came out on top in a closely contested tie with Lazio, winning 2-1 at home before holding the Italian side to a 2-2 draw in Rome.

Previous meetings
• A Lucas Paquetá goal – the Brazilian schemer's second of the campaign – gave Lyon their record-equalling sixth successive away win in the UEFA Europa League as they prevailed 1-0 in the first leg at the Estádio do Dragão, ending Porto's six-match winning streak against French opposition.

• Porto have had the better of the clubs' past meetings, winning both ties – in the 1964/65 European Cup Winners' Cup preliminary round (3-0 h, 1-0 a) and the quarter-final of their triumphant 2003/04 UEFA Champions League campaign, when José Mourinho's side overcame Paul Le Guen's Lyon 4-2 on aggregate (2-0 h, 2-2 a).

• Lyon have now won six of their 16 UEFA matches against Portuguese clubs (D4 L6), three of those at home, where they are unbeaten in their last five games (W3 D2). They beat Benfica 3-0 in the most recent, on Matchday 4 of the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League.

• Porto's all-time record against French clubs is W16 D6 L6, with four of the defeats in the 13 away fixtures (W5 D4). Three-nil victors against another Ligue 1 outfit, Monaco, in the 2004 UEFA Champions League final in Gelsenkirchen, they have won all but one of their five two-legged ties with teams from France, losing only the first – to Nantes in the 1971/72 UEFA Cup first round (0-2 h, 1-1 a). They have not conceded a goal on any of their last three visits to France – all victories.

Form guide
Lyon
• Lyon finished the 2020/21 Ligue 1 campaign in fourth place, seven points behind champions LOSC Lille, to return to European competition after a rare season's absence as direct qualifiers for the UEFA Europa League group stage. In their most recent continental campaign they reached the semi-finals of the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League.

• Peter Bosz's side beat Rangers 2-0 away in their opening UEFA Europa League group game before doing the double over both Sparta (4-3 a, 3-0 h) and Brøndby (3-0 h, 3-1 a). A full set of victories eluded them when they were held at home by Rangers on Matchday 6, but their final tally of 16 points was the highest in the competition this season – three more than any other team managed across the eight groups.

• Les Gones have won more matches in the UEFA Europa League than any other French club (27), also scoring more goals (87). This is their fourth participation in the round of 16, and while they were victorious at this stage at the first two attempts – against Viktoria Plzeň in 2013/14 (4-1 h, 1-2 a) and Roma in 2016/17 (4-2 h, 1-2 a) – they missed out in their most recent contest, succumbing on away goals to CSKA Moskva in 2017/18 (1-0 a, 2-3 h).

• That defeat by CSKA was the last time Lyon lost at home in a European fixture, and although seven of the 11 games since have been drawn, they have won three of the last four, including this season's 3-0 successes against Brøndby and Sparta. Their record at home in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase is W7 D1 L2, with wins in all four matches in 2016/17, when they reached the semi-finals.

• Lyon have won 12 ties out of 14 in UEFA competition after registering a victory in the first away leg, but lost the most recent, that round of 16 contest with CSKA Moskva four years ago. That defeat also ended the French club's 100% success rate when winning the first leg 1-0 away, which had occurred five times previously.

Porto
• Porto finished second in the 2020/21 Portuguese Liga, five points behind champions Sporting CP, and also reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, where they were knocked out by eventual winners Chelsea, both matches having been staged in Seville (0-2 h, 1-0 a).

• Porto recorded just five points in this season's UEFA Champions League group stage – eight fewer than last season – but were still in a strong position to finish second behind runaway leaders Liverpool in Group B going into their final fixture. However, a 1-3 loss to Atlético at the Estádio do Dragão left them in third place, two points behind the Spanish side but one ahead of fourth-placed AC Milan, against whom they registered their only win of the section, 1-0 at home on Matchday 3.

• This is the third time that Porto have participated in the UEFA Europa League round of 16. Competition winners in their debut campaign, under André Villas-Boas in 2010/11, when they ousted CSKA Moskva at this stage (1-0 a, 2-1 h), they also came through the round of 16 in 2013/14, beating Napoli (1-0 h, 2-2 a), before losing in the last eight to Sevilla.

• Porto won their first three away fixtures in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase – all in their triumphant 2010/11 campaign – but have failed to record a victory in eight games since, losing three in a row before holding Lazio in Rome last time out. Furthermore, they are without a win in any springtime UEFA fixture at their opponents' stadium since a 5-2 victory at Spartak Moskva in the 2010/11 quarter-final second leg – a run of 16 matches (D5 L11).

• Porto have won only one of the nine UEFA ties in which they were defeated in the first leg at home, though that was on one of the two previous occasions that they were required to overturn a 0-1 deficit, against Panathinaikos in the quarter-final of the 2002/03 UEFA Cup (2-0 a). The most recent such defeat was against Chelsea last season when both games were played at a neutral venue.

UEFA Europa League squad changes
Lyon
In: Tanguy Ndombele (Tottenham, loan), Romain Faivre (Brest)
Out: Cédric Augarreau (Virton, loan), Bruno Guimarães (Newcastle), Florent Da Silva (Villefranche, loan), Reo Griffiths (Doncaster), Marcelo (Bordeaux), Islam Slimani (Sporting CP), Eli Wissa (Villefranche, loan)

Porto
In: Galeno (Braga), Rúben Semedo (Olympiacos, loan), Stephen Eustáquio (Paços de Ferreira, loan)
Out: Jesús Corona (Sevilla), Luis Díaz (Liverpool), Nanu (Dallas, loan), Sérgio Oliveira (Roma, loan)

Links and trivia
• Lyon's Anthony Lopes and Porto's Pepe were both members of the Portugal squad that won UEFA EURO 2016 in France, the latter earning the Man of the Match award in the 1-0 final win against the hosts.

• Porto's Diogo Costa is a current rival to Lopes for the national team goalkeeper's jersey, while his club colleagues Otávio and Rúben Semedo have also been capped by Portugal.

• Pepe faced Lyon four times in the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid and was never on the losing side (W3 D1).

• Lyon's Jérôme Boateng scored for Bayern München in their 6-1 home win against Porto in the second leg of the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League quarter-final. He had also been in the Bayern side that lost the first leg 3-1 at the Estádio do Dragão.

• Sérgio Conceição was the head coach of French Ligue 1 club Nantes between December 2016 and June 2017, when he left to take over at Porto.

• Lyon head coach Bosz was the man in charge of the Bayer Leverkusen side that knocked Conceição's Porto out of the 2019/20 UEFA Europa League in the round of 32 (2-1 h, 3-1 a).

• Porto's January signing Galeno scored six goals in the UEFA Europa League group stage for Braga and remains the competition's joint top scorer alongside Lyon's Karl Toko Ekambi.

• Porto defeated Lyon 5-3 at home in a pre-season friendly on 31 July 2021.

• Porto are one of two clubs involved in the round of 16 that have previously won the UEFA Europa League, the other four-time winners Sevilla. They are also one of three former European Cup/UEFA Champions League winners taking part – together with Barcelona and Crvena zvezda.

Penalty shoot-outs
• Lyon's record in three UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L2:
2-4 v PSV Eindhoven, 2004/05 UEFA Champions League quarter-final
3-4 v APOEL, 2011/12 UEFA Champions League round of 16
7-6 v Beşiktaş, 2016/17 UEFA Europa League quarter-final

• Porto's record in three UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L2:
3-5 v Sampdoria, 1994/95 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final
8-7 v Once Caldas, 2004 European/South American Cup
1-4 v Schalke, 2007/08 UEFA Champions League round of 16