Preview

October 2, Lyon, Olympique Lyonnais Training Centre, 16:00
 
They got off to different starts
 
The Shakhtar youngsters started their campaign with a home game vs Hoffenheim (GER) and suffered a narrow 1-2 defeat (Kulakov, 74 - Alberico, 45+1, pen., Tubluk, 61). At the same time, the performance displayed by the team gave the head coach Andres Carrasco a reason for optimism: the Orange-and-Blacks outplayed their opponents in many statistical features and dangerous chances, but they just failed to convert them.
 
Lyon kicked off their European campaign with an unexpectedly big away victory over the past season’s semi-finalists Manchester City – 4-1 (Devarrewaere, 18, Pintor, 20, Cherki, 86, Ogaro, 87 - Nmecha, 57). This allowed the Weavers to seize the leadership in the quartet and to gain a significant edge over the competitors.
 
Opponents
 
The Lyon Academy has been considered one of the best in France. For the recent 20 years. At various times, its graduates were Louis Julie, Sydney Govou, Frederick Kanoute, Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben Harp, Loic Remi, Anthony Mounier. In the UEFA Youth League, Lyon U19 took part twice. In the 2015/16 season, they won in their group, beating Valencia, Zenit and Gent, but were defeated in the Round of 16 by Ajax (0-3) and, a year later, they failed to make it past the group stage, giving the second spot away to Juventus. The current squad is headed by the 48-year-old Christophe Roche. In the 1990s, he played for 10 years for Lyon as a football player, and since 2009 he has been working at the club academy. Roche took charge of the U19 team in the summer of 2017.
 
League rehearsals
 
Over the recent week, the Miners played two league games, defeating Oleksandriia (1-0) first, and then beating Volyn (2-0) away. We want to note that all three goals were scored by the top-form striker Stanyslav Biblyk. Shakhtar still enjoy an unbeaten run, being the Ukrainian League leaders.
 
In the current French league, Lyon U19 sit in the middle of the table: after 2 wins and 1 draw at the start, the Weavers suffered three consecutive defeats. Over the past week, they suffered a major home defeat at Dijon (0-4) and a narrow defeat at Sochaux (1-2).