In Focus: Can Lyon challenge PSG’s Ligue 1 dominance?

 Knocking Paris Saint-Germain off their perch must feel like an insurmountable task for the rest of Ligue 1 — but free-scoring Lyon are giving it their best shot.  

Can Rudi Garcia’s exciting side shock PSG and overtake them in the table with a famous win at the Parc des Princes tonight? 

The lie of the land

PSG are bidding for their fourth consecutive Ligue 1 title and their eighth in nine seasons, but the battle for top spot looks closer than ever this term.  

Lille and Lyon were tied on 26 points going into this weekend’s fixtures, a mere two points behind Thomas Tuchel’s men at the top having played the same number of games.  

Of the two challengers, it is Lyon who are in better form having won four consecutive league matches ahead of their trip to Paris. 

Garcia working wonders

It is fair to say that 56-year-old Garcia (pictured above) was not a universally popular choice when he was installed in the Groupama Stadium hot seat back in October 2019.  

But he has worked wonders and received acclaim from across the footballing world for leading Les Gones to the semi-finals of last season’s Champions League.  

Garcia’s brand of attacking football is reminiscent of his league and cup double-winning Lille side of 2010-11, who only lost four games all season and were Ligue 1’s top scorers with 68 goals.  

Attack, attack, attack

The numbers behind Lyon’s offensive game this season are quite striking. 

They have scored 1.69 goals per 90 minutes, but their expected goals of 2.3 per match suggests they should be scoring even more frequently.  

That is primarily because they are averaging 16.23 shots and managing 27.62 shot-creating actions per game — both the highest respective totals in Ligue 1.  

Room for improvement?

If Les Gones are to topple PSG, they will need to be more clinical in the final third and it is particularly notable that their shooting accuracy of 27% is the worst in France’s top flight.  

But broadly it is more a question of whether they can match the Parisians in the metrics where Lyon are already excelling. 

For example, Lyon’s 3.54 goal-creating actions per 90 minutes is outstanding, but PSG’s 4.31 per game is even more impressive — and that disparity reflects the high standards needed to win Ligue 1 this season.  

Plenty of firepower

Despite the enormity of the task, Lyon’s arsenal of creative and attacking stars offers hope they can top the table against the odds. 

Forwards Karl Toko Ekambi and Memphis Depay were inside the league’s top 10 players for total contributions (goals and assists) per 90 minutes ahead of this weekend, at 1.04 and 0.98 respectively. 

They are supported by right-back Leo Dubois, who is in scintillating form having supplied 33 key passes and 21 passes into the final third this season.  

Overthrowing PSG will be tough, but this season's title race is far from a foregone conclusion.