FC Zenit will look to prolong their historic winning streak and inflict further misery on Olympique Lyonnais when the teams meet at the Stade de Gerland on matchday four.
• Zenit beat Lyon 3-1 in St Petersburg on 20 October with goals from Artem Dzyuba, Hulk and Danny. Alexandre Lacazette scored for Lyon in what was their first ever defeat by a Russian team.
• With three victories, Zenit have made their best start to a UEFA Champions League campaign and need just one more win to reach the last 16. Lyon have made their worst start; never before have they reached the midway point of a UEFA Champions League group stage without a win to their name.
Match background
Lyon
• With one point from three matches, Lyon sit bottom of Group H and will be eliminated if they fail to beat Zenit and Valencia CF overcome KAA Gent in the other fixture in the section.
• Lyon have suffered defeats in their last two European home matches, going down to Valencia (0-1) on matchday two and, before that, losing to Romania’s FC Astra Giurgiu (1-2) in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League play-offs.
• They have won their two previous home matches against Russian opposition – 3-1 against FC Rubin Kazan in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League play-offs and 3-0 against FC Spartak Mosvka in the 2000/01 second group stage.
• Bakary Koné and Maxime Gonalons played in that win over Rubin – with Koné scoring in the 1-1 second-leg draw in Russia. Steed Malbranque, meanwhile, appeared as a substitute in the 2000 home meeting with Spartak.
Zenit
• Zenit can guarantee qualification for the knockout rounds with a victory. A draw would be enough if Gent failed to beat Valencia in the other game.
• Last season Zenit’s UEFA Champions League hopes vanished away to Ligue 1 opposition when they lost 2-0 at AS Monaco FC in their final group fixture.
• Their overall away record against Ligue 1 clubs is W1 D0 L4. Vyacheslav Malafeev and Aleksandr Anyukov are survivors of Zenit’s only previous win in France – 1-0 at Olympique de Marseille in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup round of 16.
