Ajax v Lyon Betting Tips: Visitors defensive frailties to be exposed

This semi-final first leg provides hosts Ajax with an excellent opportunity to put themselves in a strong position ahead of their trip to France. Lyon, for all their attacking qualities, are a side who’ve shown numerous defensive weaknesses in recent weeks and the Dutch side are fancied to take advantage.

Home is most certainly where the heart is for Ajax while Lyon have found life on the road tricky of late; the Dutch outfit come into this fixture in imperious form on their own patch having won each of their last ten fixtures, whereas Lyon’s away form, with just three wins in their last 12, is patchy at best. With this in mind, the two bets that stand out ahead of this one are ‘Ajax to Win’ and ‘Ajax to Score Over 1.5 Goals’.

Ajax have been very hard to get the better of on their own patch in recent times, but you could argue that, since the Dutch top division isn’t the toughest league in Europe, that this is a given. However, their form at home in the Europa League has also been impressive. Peter Bosz’s men have won all six of their Europa League matches at the Amsterdam ArenA this season, and have scored 11 goals, conceded just two and kept five clean sheets in the process. It’s fair to say that Ajax, who were once giants on the continents’ biggest stage, are no mugs in front of their own fans.

Winning matches is one thing, but scoring goals is another. In recent weeks, Ajax have been scoring for fun, especially at home, and come into this one having notched no less than 28 in their last ten at their iconic home ground. Additionally, the home side have scored at least twice in nine of those ten, as well as in four of their six home matches in this competition.

Much has been made about Lyon’s scoring exploits of late and it’s hard to deny their quality going forward, although they have been given a bit of a an easy ride at times, especially against Dutch opponents AZ Alkmaar earlier in this competition. However, Ajax are likely to be much tougher to pass.

Lyon have struggled to hold their form of late and the cracks are starting appear, particularly away from home. On the road, Bruno Génésio’s men have definitely struggled of late having won just three of their last 12. Last time out, they were outplayed and were very lucky to walk away with all three points against Angers. They may have won that match, but it was yet another illustration of just how weak they can be defensively. The visitors come here with just one clean sheet in their last 13 away matches (all competitions).

All things considered, Ajax, who boast plenty of pace and youthful quality in their front-line, are expected to have enough about them to punish a visiting team who’ve looked anything but secure at the back of late. Backing the Dutch giants to secure themselves both two goals and a lead ahead of the second leg is the way to go.

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