Strasbourg vs Lyon Prediction: Emegha to land a second blow of the season on Les Gones

Two of Ligue 1's most in-form sides meet at the Stade de la Meinau on Friday night (19:45, Amazon Prime Video) as seventh-place RC Strasbourg host an Olympique Lyonnais outfit two spots and two points higher. Both clubs have won five of their last six league games and have put themselves in strong positions for the final eight rounds of fixtures with the top four in sight.

Below are my Strasbourg vs Lyon predictions, supported by all the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Habib Diarra (ankle), Moise Sahi Dion, Andrew Omobamidele (both Achilles) and Abdoul Ouattara (unspecified) are all out injured for Strasbourg, while Alaa Bellaarouch (groin) is a doubt.

Le Racing will welcome back Dilane Bakwa and Abakar Sylla from suspension, however, and the return of the former could see Southampton loanee Samuel Amo-Ameyaw, who made his full Ligue 1 debut in the 2-1 win over Toulouse before the international break, drop back down to the bench.

Football Odds

Head coach Liam Rosenior may also be tempted to throw Sylla back into the starting XI after his side's run of five straight shutouts was ended by Frank Magri, who struck in the third minute for Toulouse at the Stade de la Meinau before Felix Lemarechal and Chelsea loanee Andrey Santos turned things around for the hosts in the second half.

Sael Kumbedi is suspended for the visitors due to an accumulation of yellow cards in the competition, but the 20-year-old defender isn't a major miss as he didn't even make it off the bench in Lyon's 4-2 victory over Le Havre before the international break.

Head coach Paulo Fonseca could name an unchanged starting XI on Friday, although it remains to be seen in what condition Thiago Almada returns. The Botafogo loanee started both of Argentina's March World Cup qualifiers, scoring in and playing the majority of a 1-0 win against Uruguay last Friday before featuring for 68 minutes of Wednesday's 4-1 thrashing of Brazil.

Malick Fofana and Georges Mikautadze scored off the bench against Le Havre and will both be pushing for starts against Strasbourg.

Strasbourg vs Lyon Odds

Lyon won the reverse fixture 4-3 last August, but the last time the two teams met at the Stade de la Meinau, in August 2023, Strasbourg triumphed 2-1. Despite this and their strong home record this season, Le Racing are slight underdogs on Friday, with odds of 13/8 implying a win probability of 38.1%, less than the visitors' 40% (6/4).

There has been a winner in the last five league meetings between these sides, but you can back a draw this time around at 13/5, while both teams to score, which has landed in seven straight head-to-heads in Ligue 1, is priced at 8/15.

Lyon captain Alexandre Lacazette, his side's leading marksman this season with 10 league goals, is 8/5 favourite in the anytime goalscorer market, followed by Mikautadze (7/4) and Strasbourg's 11-goal top scorer Emanuel Emegha (15/8), who put Rosenior's charges 3-1 up at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in August before Les Gones staged a comeback win.

Double Chance & BTTS - Strasbourg or Draw & Yes @ 6/5

Strasbourg have won seven of their 12 home games in Ligue 1 this season, drawing four times and losing just once (1-3 v AS Monaco, November 9). It's been a seriously impressive job performed so far by Rosenior, who has presided over what looks to be a European charge.

Le Racing had kept five clean sheets in a row before conceding early on against Toulouse, but now face, arguably, their toughest test since the second half of January when they drew 1-1 away to Olympique Marseille and beat Lille OSC 2-1 at home in the space of seven days.

Lyon have won their last five games in all competitions, and only league leaders Paris Saint-Germain (2-3) and second-place Marseille (3-2) have managed to get the better of them in their last 13 outings.

Les Gones have scored in their last 11 matches, and since blanking in their first two away games, losing 3-0 to Stade Rennais on the opening weekend of the campaign and drawing 0-0 with RC Lens in round four, they haven't been denied on their travels, netting in 11 straight Ligue 1 road trips.

Only the top three clubs - PSG (73), Marseille (53) and Monaco (51) - have scored more goals in the French top flight than Lyon (50) this season, while only Stade Brestois (40) have shipped more strikes than Strasbourg (33) in the top 10.

There were seven goals scored in August's reverse fixture as Lyon fought from 3-1 down to win 4-3, and with both teams scoring in the last seven head-to-heads in Ligue 1, you'd be a brave person to back against BTTS landing on Friday.

Strasbourg and Lyon both rank in the top seven for BTTS in Ligue 1 this season and I'm fully expecting at least a goal on either side this week.

Both teams to score is priced at 8/15, but we can up our odds to 6/5 by adding in the double chance result on the hosts. As previously mentioned, Strasbourg are strong at home with only one away side, Monaco, managing to claim all three points at the Stade de la Meinau.

Lyon have picked up 19 points in Ligue 1 this term - only PSG (33), Marseille (27) and Lens (22) have accrued more on their travels - but five wins from 13 games isn't a menacing statistic, and only two of the five teams they have beaten away from home currently reside in the top half of the table.

Anytime Goalscorer - Emanuel Emegha (STR) @ 15/8

Emegha saw his spot-kick hit the post in the final game of last season as Strasbourg lost 2-1 at Lyon. The score was level at 1-1 when Emegha stepped up in the 77th minute and failed to convert, and his miss was costly as Lacazette fired home himself from 12 yards in the fifth minute of stoppage time to claim all three points for his side and ensure qualification into Europe.

The Netherlands U21 international was on the losing side again at Lyon earlier this term, but he did atone for last season's penalty miss by scoring their third of the game at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais, only for those behind him to let the team down.

It's been an impressive campaign for the 22-year-old who is behind only Ousmane Dembele (21), Mason Greenwood (15), Jonathan David (14) and Bradley Barcola (13) in the goalscorer charts, and eight of his 11 Ligue 1 strikes have come since the turn of the year - only Dembele has found the net more times in 2025.

At 15/8, I think Emegha is good value to get on the scoresheet against Lyon for the second time this season.

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