Crystal Palace have made the journey to France to face Olympique Lyonnais in their second Europa League game, as Pierre Sage eyes a return to his former side and Palace are reunited with the club who effectively had them demoted to the Conference League last season. 

The Eagles will be aiming to make it back to back wins after their home victory over Lech Poznań, which Palace won 4-0. 

The game kicks off at 17:45 and is live on TNT Sports in the UK.

But what can Palace fans expect from Lyon, and what sort of lineup will Palace be looking to deploy?

Olympique Lyonnais are one of France’s powerhouse clubs, but their recent years have been a drastic fall off since their previous success. Lyon’s last major honour was the 2011/12 French Cup, and they have never won a major European trophy. 

Since their first title in the 1963/43 season, Lyon have won a staggering five French Cups, one French League Cup and seven Ligue Un titles. 

Lyon have also won an Intertoto Cup, in 1997/98, a competition for teams who failed to qualify for either the Champions League or the UEFA Cup, now the Europa League. 

Modern names associated with the club include Alexandre Lacazette and Karim Benzema, but also the likes of Rémi Garde, Sidney Govou, Hugo Lloris and Nabil Fekir too. 

It’s a club steeped in history, but one which has struggled over recent years, some of that under the ownership of John Textor. 

Lyon are currently fourth in Ligue Un, with three wins, two draws and a single defeat, which came in their last outing against RC Lens last weekend. 

They’ve finished within the top six for the last three seasons, and will be aiming to make deep progress in this year’s Europa League. 

In their previous game in the competition, Fonseca’s side managed to beat Anderlecht away from home, by two goals to one. 

Palace and Lyon have met just once before, in a pre-season friendly at Selhurst Park ahead of the 2023/24 season, Palace winning 2-0 with goals from Jeff Schlupp and Odsonne Édouard. 

Managed by Paulo Fonseca, who has been a long term target for Crystal Palace as a managerial option, Lyon will be looking for a big response to their defeat last week, and Palace fans should expect a passionate support from the home fans. 

In his pre-match presser, Pierre Sage confirmed that all of the players who missed the Premier League game against Nottingham Forest would be absent again this evening. 

Dean Henderson, JP Mateta, Ben Chilwell, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Chadi Riad will all be unavailable, but Sage confirmed that everyone else in Palace’s UEFA squad list had travelled. 

Axel Disasi will be available, after missing another Premier League game through his suspension, which he still has one game left to serve and will therefore miss Brighton at the weekend. 

With four days rest since the 3-1 win over Forest, Palace fans could expect a similar lineup, but some rotation will be key to manage the workload for the players, with five games still to come in the two weeks remaining in October after this game. 

Walter Benítez will keep his starting spot after his excellent performance at the weekend, and outside of that, the core starters will likely remain in place. 

Ismaïla Sarr could return to the starting eleven, as Sage continues to ease him back into the side, and our predicted lineup is as follows:

W.Benítez; A.Khalaili, A.Disasi, J.Canvot, H.Ahanor, T.Mitchell; Q.Timber, A.Wharton; Y.Pino, J.Strand Larsen, I.Sarr.