1899 Hoffenheim v Lyon: Europa League prediction, line-ups & tips

Matchday three of the Europa League league stage is the point where a campaign either settles or starts to wobble.

Hoffenheim are firmly in wobble territory, having lost both of their opening games and picked up no points to show for them.

Lyon, by contrast, sit on a perfect six points from two and are in the top eight of the table as things stand.

The stakes are plain enough: only the top eight go straight through to the last 16, and everyone else has to survive a play-off first.

That makes Thursday night at the SNP Arena a fixture where one side is hunting reassurance and the other is hunting a place in the queue for the front door.

Hoffenheim's league stage has been a bruising one so far.

They lost 2-0 away at OFI in their opener, then went down 3-2 at home to Beşiktaş last time out, which leaves them with two goals scored and five conceded.

The numbers behind the results are not kind either, with an expected goals against figure of 3.39 per game across those two matches.

Lyon have started far more smoothly.

They won 2-1 away at Anderlecht on matchday one and then edged a 3-2 thriller at home to Crystal Palace, so they have scored five and conceded three from two games.

It has not been watertight, however, and Lyon have yet to keep a clean sheet.

Rotation is unlikely to be a major theme here.

Hoffenheim have no points and no time to experiment, so expect the strongest XI the injury list allows.

Lyon turned round a game against Palace on a Thursday, only a week ago, and with six points banked they could be tempted to freshen things up a little.

With no sign of a heavy fixture pile-up in the information to hand, a handful of changes at most is the likelier outcome.

The visitors have also scored in every game so far and have no reason to tinker too much with an attack that is working.

1899 Hoffenheim (4-2-3-1): Baumann; Gendrey, Hranáč, Kabak, Prass; Avdullahu, Burger; Lemperle, Kramarić, Hložek; Asllani.

**Lyon (4-3-3): Niakhaté, Mata, Abner; Tolisso, Tessmann, Merah; Nuamah, Šulc, Duranville.

Both line-ups are educated guesses, and Lyon's are the more likely to shift if rotation does arrive.

Kick-off at the SNP Arena is 20:00 BST on Thursday 22 October 2026.

The game is shown on TNT Sports where selected, and the exact channel will be added to this page once it is confirmed.

This is a single league stage fixture rather than a two-legged tie, so there is no aggregate to worry about and no knockout drama on the night.

If level after 90 minutes, the match simply finishes as a draw, with no extra time and no penalty shootout.