AS Saint-Etienne vs. RC Lens / Ligue 1 – The first match in the 24th round of Ligue 1, which is traditionally played on Friday night, brings us two completely unequal opponents, since the host St. Etienne is currently at high fourth place in the standings and has 19 points more than the penultimate Lance. In addition, their autumn duel ended with an away win of St. Etienne, while five season’s ago both teams celebrated at home. Begins: 06.02.2015 – 20:30 CET
AS Saint-Etienne
But since then, the circumstances have changed drastically in favour of St. Etienne, which is best confirmed by the current standings of the two teams in Ligue 1. However, the fourth place just does not reflect properly the current form of this team, because they are welcoming lance after a series of three defeats, one draw and just one victory, which was achieved in the fourth round of the French Cup against Tours. On the other hand, in the quarterfinals of League Cup they were eliminated by PSG, while they later experienced a home defeat by the same team in the championship, and it all finally culminated last weekend when they were defeated in the championship match against Caen.
That is why coach Galtier announced that his team urgently needs one win to restore the self-confidence, because already this season they lost almost all the chances to reach the one of the positions that lead to Champions League. As for absences due to injuries we have defenders Clerc, Pogba and Sall, midfielder Cohade and striker Monnet-Paquet, while midfielder Diomande and striker Gradel are still at the African Cup of Nations.
Probable lineups AS Saint-Etienne: Ruffier – Theophile-Catherine, Baysse, Perrin, Tabanou – Lemoine, Clement – Hamouma, Corgnet, Mollo – van Wolfswinkel
RC Lens
Unlike St. Etienne, which each year has the highest possible ambitions, for the team of Lens this is the first comeback season after three seasons in the lower rank so it is quite clear that their main objective is the survival in the French elite rank, especially because they have one of the smallest budgets in the league. Consequently it is not surprising that they are currently at the penultimate place in the table, along with the fact that they are for five games without a victory, while in addition they were recently eliminated from the French Cup by Lyon.
However, what is somewhat encouraging for coach Kombouare is the fact that they after three straight defeats in the last two rounds of Ligue 1 recorded two draws, and it was away against Reims and at home against Bastia. All this tells us that now they are with a lot more confidence coming to this match against the favoured St. Etienne, but they will probably limit themselves on a solid game in defence and quick counter-attacks. We should also add that defender Landry, midfielder El Jadeyaoui and strikers Touzghar and N’Diaye are all out of action due to injuries.
Probable lineups RC Lens: Riou – Cavare, Gbamin, Kantari, Baal – Cyprien, Le Moigne, Valdivia, Nomenjanahary – Chavarria, Coulibaly
AS Saint-Etienne vs. RC Lens PICK
Although the team of St. Etienne is at the moment in a crisis, they are now playing against one of the worst teams in the league which creates an ideal opportunity to restore their self-confidence and therefore we expect that they will on Friday night do their best to come to new three championship points.
Pick: Asian Handicap -1 St. Etienne
Stake: 5/10
Odds: 1.98
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