Neither Villarreal nor Olympique Lyonnais are in great form

Villarreal have now dropped two La Liga matches in a row to teams lower in the table, and Olympique Lyonnais, our Europa League opponent on Thursday, has not been doing so well either.

Lyon dropped their third Ligue 1 match in a row, going down at home 2-0 to eighth-placed Rennes. It was a somewhat controversial loss, as this report indicates, Lyon clamoring for a penalty when down only 1-0. No one is going to catch PSG, but the battle for second, third and fourth is very close and with these three losses OL have fallen from second to fourth and are four points behind third-placed Marseille....and France only get three Champions League places.

Villarreal are in virtually the same situation in Spain—five points off the final CL spot—though in our case there are teams nipping at our heels for fifth.