All you need to know about Lyon v. Paris

A BIT OF HISTORY

This is the 105th encounter between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon, with just two clubs having faced Les Parisiens more often in their history: Bordeaux (110 matches) and Monaco (109 matches). The head-to-head record sits in Les Rouge et Bleu's favour, with 44 wins, 29 draws and 31 defeats.

The capital club are unbeaten in their last four games away to Lyon, having won 1-0 on 22nd September 2019 in the league, 5-1 on 4th March 2020 in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France and 4-2 on 21st March 2021 in the league, as well as earning a 1-1 draw last season, again in the league, on 9th January 2022.

The two teams have played out an incredible 4-4 scoreline in Lyon on two occasions: 13th September 1974 and 25th February 2012. This result has been a highly rare one for Les Parisiens in the French first division since 1970, as it has come up on just three occasions (including against Amiens on 15/02/2020) in 1,838 games.

Behind Paris Saint-Germain, who have been a mainstay in Ligue 1 since 1974, Lyon are the club with the second-longest presence in the top flight, having spent 34 seasons at the highest level since 1989.

27 players have played for both clubs: Hatem Ben Arfa, Milan Biševac, Mathieu Bodmer, Luc Borrelli, Daniel Bravo, François Brisson, Jérémy Clément, Grégory Coupet, James Debbah, Vikash Dhorasoo, Jean Djorkaeff, Raymond Domenech, Fabrice Fiorèse, Pierre-Alain Frau, Laurent Fournier, Franck Gava, Ludovic Giuly, Pascal Havet, David Hellebuyck, Christophe Jallet, Gérard Lanthier, Patrice Loko, Peguy Luyindula, Florian Maurice, Bruno Ngotty, Jean-Luc Sassus and Daniel Xuereb. Moussa Dembélé, who came through Paris Saint-Germain's academy but never played for the first team, hasn't been counted.

Paris Saint-Germain's top scorer against Lyon is Kylian Mbappé, with ten goals to his name. He sits just ahead of Edinson Cavani (nine goals), Zlatan Ibrahimović (seven goals) and Mustapha Dahleb (six goals).

Paris's no. 7 seems to enjoy being by the Rhône, as he has scored five goals past Les Gones in Lyon – a personal record for him at Paris, level only with his five goals against both Dijon and Montpellier.

THE STAKES

With seven wins and one draw, unbeaten league leaders Paris Saint-Germain are coming off the back of a 1-0 league win away to Brest.

Paris are also on a run of 16 games without defeat in Ligue 1, with 12 wins, four draws, 56 goals scored and just 13 goals conceded.

Away from home, Les Parisiens' record is exceptional. They have scored 34 goals in their last eight league games on the road, away to Clermont (6-1), Angers (3-0), Strasbourg (3-3), Montpellier (4-0), Clermont again (5-0), Lille (7-1), Toulouse (3-0) and Nantes (3-0).

THE KEYS TO THE GAME

Paris's goalscorers have a particular liking for Lyon, with 161 goals scored past Les Gones. Just one club has a worse record than Lyon in this respect: Saint-Étienne, with 167 goals conceded.

Kylian Mbappé scored four goals against Lyon in a 5-0 win on 7th October 2018, the seventh and most recent four-goal haul to date for a Paris player in the top flight. The World Cup winner is particularly successful away from home, having netted 12 times in his last six away games in the league with PSG.

Neymar Jr could also celebrate his 100th Ligue 1 appearance for Les Rouge et Bleu this evening.