Olympique Lyonnais will be without five key players when they host Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday night, the club confirmed on their official twitter handle.
Star attacker Memphis Depay is among those who miss out, sidelined due to a long term knee injury.
Jeff Reine-Adelaide is also out for Lyon with a knee problem while Youssef Kone misses out due to an ankle injury.
Rafael and Oumar Solet were doubts for the clash and manager Rudi Garcia left the duo out of the squad that will face the Italian champions.
Lyon have had a sub-par league season so far with the club in only seventh place after 26 matches played.
Despite his side’s injury problems, Garcia delivered a positive press update – drawing hope from defeats to PSG and Liverpool and claiming that Juventus can also be defeated.
“There are only great teams in the Round of 16 of the Champions League,” he said.
“We thought Liverpool and Paris would win but they didn’t because they played great teams.
“It’s up to us to make the match our own. We hope that Juventus are not at 100%, so as to beat the odds. Few people give us a chance.
“We have to trust in ourselves. I have no worries about the motivation of my players. This kind of match makes you want to play in a pretty incredible week.
“You will have to be 100%, at the top in all areas. This will be necessary to prevent Juventus from developing its attacks and to take our luck facing them. ”
The match was clouded with threats of a coronoavirus outbreak in Italy but UEFA has said that the match will go ahead as planned earlier.
Lyon midfielder Bruno Guimaraes made his debut at the weekend against Metz in Ligue 1 after his transfer from Athletico Paranaense and is expected to make his Champions League debut this week.
Lyon played a three man defense against Metz but Garcia said that they will not be playing this system against Juventus.
“We used a different system in Metz,” he continued.
“We will not play in this system tomorrow. We integrated Bruno Guimaraes and it was a good system to give him a debut in ideal conditions. My players are able to flourish no matter the system in which we play. ”
The two sides faced each other in the 2016-17 Champions League group stage with one draw and one Juventus victory.
