By D. Crossan
Monaco’s humiliation at Paris Saint-Germain last week has opened the door for a thrilling fight for second. Olympique Lyonnais boss Bruno Genesio, however, says his focus is on securing third ahead of Olympique de Marseille.
Dijon FCO – Olympique Lyonnais 
>> LIVE scoring and statistics from 21:00 CET on Friday
OL travel to Dijon on Friday evening sitting in third place in the table ahead of OM on goal difference (+36 to +27) and four points back from outgoing champions Monaco. Given OL have won five consecutive games and have not conceded in their last three outings, Monaco would do well to return to winning ways as quickly as possible.
Genesio commented: “For now we’re focused on the fight with OM for third. We can’t control second place as it depends on Monaco’s results and there’s no point focusing on that. Maybe in a game or two’s time it will be worth looking at it if we’re in the hunt. The most important thing is to stay third for the moment.”
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Fekir: “At 100%”
OL, already flying, received a further boost last weekend when captain Nabil Fekir looked sharp on his return from injury as a substitute in the 3-0 home success over Amiens. Genesio is delighted to have the 16-goal forward back: “Nabil is our captain and he carried the team for a long time. In difficult times for us he allowed us to get back into the race. There is no debate when it comes to him. When he’s at 100% physically he’s our captain and a guaranteed starter. And he’s at 100%.”
OL were held to a 3-3 draw by Dijon back in September, while last season OL fell 4-2 away and won 4-2 at home. Genesio, whose side are third in the Ligue 1 Conforama attack table, expects another goal-laden encounter with a side that have scored 46 times this season to sit fifth in the attack standings.
Genesio said: “Dijon play with attacking principles and their coach loves them to play creative football. They want to play and enjoy their football. I think we can expect a very open game on Friday evening.”
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Jobard: “They’re the Lyonnais ogre”
Dijon assistant coach Stéphane Jobard is well aware of the challenge facing his team, even if the mid-table Burgundy club have only lost oe of their last eight Ligue 1 Conforama games. Jobard said: “They’re the Lyonnais ogre at the moment. They’re difficult to play against. They’ve found the right formula and they have the objective of qualifying for the Champions League. This year we’ve had trouble against the big clubs, apart from against PSG at home.
“Lyon is a great challenge for us. The cake is there as the stadium will be full and now we’d like to put the cherry on that cake. We want to show that the progress that we showed against Nantes in our last game is durable. Compared to our game against Marseille, we need to be capable of causing more problems to Lyon.”
Dijon have been working on getting a better balance between their impressive attack and the second-leakiest defence in the division. Right-back Fouad Chafik revealed: “The coach has been telling us since the start of the season that if we want to get results then we need to be more solid defensively. Defence starts with our attack and goes all the way through the side to the goalkeeper. Of late, we have been more solid.”
Probable Teams:
Dijon: (to follow)
Lyon: (to follow)
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