Strasbourg vs Lyon Preview
Two members of France's 1998 World Cup-winning side reunite at the Stade de la Meinau on Sunday night as Partick Vieira's Strasbourg play host to Laurent Blanc's Lyon in their opening Ligue 1 fixture of the new season.
While the hosts won three, drew three and lost one of their seven pre-season matches this summer, the visitors enter the 2023-24 campaign after suffering four defeats in five warm-up games.
After narrowly avoiding relegation from Ligue 1 last season, finishing 15th and just five points above the drop zone, Strasbourg have since made significant changes from top to bottom at the football club in a bid to turn their fortunes around in 2023-24.
In June, the Racers were taken over by BlueCo – a consortium led by Todd Boehly that bought Chelsea last summer – and just a few weeks later, former Crystal Palace boss Vieira was appointed head coach on a three-year deal.
Strasbourg have taken a similar approach to Chelsea in the transfer market by splashing the cash on young talent, spending over €55m on eight new arrivals including the club-record €20m addition of defender Abakar Sylla from Club Brugge.
The Alsace-based outfit concluded their pre-season preparations with a double-header against German club Werder Bremen last weekend, with a 3-3 draw in the first game shortly followed by a 2-1 victory.
Vieira is now hoping to begin his reign on a positive note and guide Strasbourg to their first opening-day win in Ligue 1 for four years against a Lyon side whom they beat 2-1 away from home in January.