🏏 Sat, 29 Aug 2026 20:45 CEST
Olympique Lyonnais
vs
Le Havre AC
4-2-3-1 vs 3-4-2-1
Substitutes
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Match Preview
- Lyon began the season with a 2-0 win away at Toulouse that leaves them fourth on three points with a +2 goal difference. Le Havre, by contrast, lost 1-0 at home to Monaco and sit 15th without a point. Lille already lead the way on four, and this fixture pits Lyon's 4-2-3-1 against a Le Havre 3-4-2-1.
- Three Japanese players are involved. Japan international defender Ayumu Seko starts in Le Havre's back three, Kaito Mizuta lines up in the attacking band alongside Mbwana Samatta, and 23-year-old rookie Sota Nakamura waits on the bench. For a side already beaten on matchday one, how those three cope with Lyon's pressure could decide the afternoon.
- Seko faces a searching 90 minutes. The 26-year-old came through the Cerezo Osaka academy, moved to Europe with Grasshopper and has built a reputation in France as a dual-purpose player: a centre-back by trade who is comfortable enough on the ball to fill in as a holding midfielder. At 185cm he brings aerial strength and long passing off either foot, and his reading of runs in behind will be tested repeatedly.
- Mizuta's story is one of persistence. Born in 2000 and standing 182cm, he worked his way up through the German lower leagues with Straelen, Arminia Bielefeld and Rot-Weiß Essen before arriving in Ligue 1. On the bench is 168cm Sota Nakamura, 23, who swept the Kanto University League's scoring, assist and MVP awards while at Meiji University and joined via Sanfrecce Hiroshima; his high pressing and off-the-ball intelligence make him a natural late option.
- Lyon's lone striker is Loïs Openda, a Belgium international rebuilding his career. He scored freely at Lens, moved on to RB Leipzig and then Juventus, where a difficult year yielded two goals in 34 games, and he has returned to Ligue 1 on a €3m loan with no purchase option. Pace and runs in behind are his currency, which puts the onus on Le Havre's back three to judge their defensive line precisely.
- Lyon's midfield blends pedigree and promise. Captain Corentin Tolisso, 32, is a 2018 World Cup winner who also lifted the Champions League with Bayern Munich. Behind him sit 23-year-old Tyler Morton, a Liverpool academy graduate sharpened by loans at Blackburn and Hull City, and 25-year-old Dane Mads Bidstrup, whose CV takes in Brentford, RB Leipzig and Salzburg.
- The Lyon wide players carry real threat. On the left is 22-year-old Ghana international Ernest Nuamah, once the Danish Superliga's Player of the Year at Nordsjælland and a club-record arrival in 2023, with 18 caps and four international goals to his name. On the right is 20-year-old Boudache, a left-footed winger schooled at Nice who only made his professional debut in the Europa League in January 2026.
- Whether Le Havre can push back down the flanks falls to their wing-backs. Timothée Pembélé, a PSG academy product who recovered from a cruciate ligament injury suffered on loan at Bordeaux, is on loan from Sunderland and takes the right. On the left is 22-year-old Simon Ebonog, born in Yaoundé, who moved from PSG's youth ranks into the Le Havre academy that produced Paul Pogba and Riyad Mahrez.
- Set pieces should be a contest of height. Lyon pair 190cm left-footed Senegal international Moussa Niakhaté, a former Mainz captain who also played for Nottingham Forest, with 190cm Austrian Felix Bacher, while Nicolás Tagliafico, a 2022 World Cup winner and a three-time Eredivisie champion with Ajax, patrols the left. Le Havre have their own tower in 197cm midfielder Michael Richardson.
- The benches tip Lyon's way but are not one-sided. They can introduce Czech playmaker Pavel Šulc, scorer of 47 goals in 167 games for Viktoria Plzeň, Belgium winger Malick Fofana, a €17m signing from Gent, and 20-year-old Noah Nartey, who scored on his Ligue 1 debut. Le Havre hold Nigeria striker Josh Maja, who scored twice on his Premier League debut for Fulham, and Denmark right-back Elias Jelert, a Champions League regular with Copenhagen and Galatasaray.