Manchester United vs Lyon

Old Trafford is the venue as Manchester United and Lyon lock horns in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie.

The worst season in Manchester United’s modern history hinges on making a standout result in the Europa League after a dismal 4-1 defeat at Newcastle United confirmed their first bottom-half finish in the Premier League era. Manager Ruben Amorim left Andre Onana out of his matchday squad after the under-fire goalkeeper’s poor performance saw United draw 2-2 at the Groupama Stadium last week. Losing resurgent forward Joshua Zirkzee to injury only aggravated the situation, particularly considering the Red Devils have netted under 1.5 goals in three of their last four competitive matches. Back-to-back home defeats to French opposition hardly bode well, though Man Utd can draw heart from a 14-game unbeaten H2H streak against Ligue 1 clubs at Old Trafford beforehand (W10, D4).

Visiting Lyon fell to two defeats during that run, and the visitors must rewrite the history books to reach the UEFA semi-finals for only the fifth time. Indeed, they’ve gone winless in all five previous games against Man Utd (D3, L2), though it’s worth noting that just one of their last eight matches against Premier League opponents ended in defeat (W4, D4). Paulo Fonseca’s charges thumped Auxerre 3-1 at the weekend to post their seventh win in nine outings since the beginning of March (D1, L1), setting themselves up nicely for this trip. More inspiration comes from Les Gones’ outstanding 12-game unbeaten run in Europa League away games (W9, D3) dating back to December 2017.