Ligue 1 Matchday 34, Saturday, 17.05.2025 at 21:00
It’s going to be a close call for Europe! Ahead of the final matchday of the French Ligue 1, there isn’t exactly a lot of enthusiasm at Olympique Lyon, as the team no longer has its international fate in its own hands.
The season ends with a home game against a team that has nothing left to play for. A clear-cut affair, then? In my Lyon Angers prediction, I’ll tell you why that’s not necessarily the case and why I’m going for the classic “both teams to score” bet.
The situation: Three points behind fourth, fifth, and sixth place. The tension: off the charts! In Ligue 1, we are witnessing a heart-stopping finale for the international spots in Europe and the Conference League.
Lyon must overtake at least one team to qualify for European competition in 2025/26. In the event of a tie, it’s important to know that goal difference will decide the outcome. And here, too, it couldn’t be any closer.
+17 for Lyon, +13 for Strasbourg, +15 for Lille, and +19 for Monaco—let’s get out our calculators. Of course, from Olympique’s point of view, the math only matters if they win and at least one of their rivals fails to pick up any points.
Now to the current form, can Lyon be satisfied with that? For the first time since the start of the season, the team has lost two games in a row. So the answer to the question is: No!
First a 1-2 defeat to Lens, then a 0-2 defeat to Monaco, three of the last four games have been lost. In addition, goals have been conceded in 13 of the last 15 matches.
Since the end of January, interestingly, Olympique has not played a draw. Is it an advantage that the season finale will be played in their own stadium?
Although they have picked up more points at home, Lyon are not exactly a force to be reckoned with on their own turf. 4-0, 2-3, 2-1, 4-2, 2-1, 4-1, 1-2 – their last home games have been anything but boring.
Exactly 3.5 goals are scored on average when Lyon plays at home. In this respect, you can risk betting on “Over 3.5 goals,” which will get you odds of 2.04 at Merkur Bets. The Merkur Bets bonus also ensures that you can secure up to $40 in the form of a free bet.
Angers is currently their favorite opponent. In the first half of the season, Lyon celebrated a confident 3-0 victory, winning nine of their last ten games. The team has scored 28 goals in the process!
5-0, 3-2, 3-0, 6-0, 2-1—the latest results from their home stadium don’t sound too bad. The odds at our ApplePay bookmakers are clear anyway.
Lyon is the clear favorite, with odds averaging 1.30 to 9.50. This is certainly also due to the fact that Angers has nothing left to play for.
The western French side go into the final matchday in 13th place, with their place in the league secure. The promoted side didn’t want anything more than that for 2024/25, so they are quite satisfied.
The team has lost 17 times, with only the three relegated sides playing more games without a point. After a very weak spring with seven defeats in eight games, relegation loomed, but it was avoided in the most recent games.
A 1-0 win against Nantes and a 2-1 win against Strasbourg meant that, for the third time this season, a win did not come alone. On the other hand, I must definitely mention that 13 of the 17 defeats did not see the team score a single goal.
With 32 goals in 33 games, it’s not as if Angers are among the best in attack. Away from home, however, the team defends quite well.
Need proof? They have conceded 33 goals at home, but only 18 away. Angers concede exactly two goals on average when they play away from home.
The few goals conceded already reveal that even top clubs don’t get run over. 0-2 in Lille, 0-1 against PSG, 1-2 in Nice, plus a 1-1 draw in Marseille and a 1-1 draw in Strasbourg – that’s not so bad.
Only once, in a 3-3 draw with St. Etienne, did Angers concede three goals away from home. Accordingly, you can place a bet on “Under 2.5 goals Lyon” on your betting slip, with odds of 1.82 at Oddset.
Lyon still has a small chance of qualifying for Europe, but it is no longer in their own hands. It is therefore unclear how Olympique will react if their rivals’ results do not go their way.
Angers can play without any pressure and, in my analysis, has been surprisingly strong defensively – at least away from home. If Lyon knows that nothing more is possible due to the competition, this could show on the pitch.
Accordingly, I expect the visitors to be able to combine well up front and Lyon, who are not the best defensively anyway, to concede something. My tip is therefore:
Both teams to score!
