Lens and Saint-Etienne may have to share spoils
RC Lens vs AS Saint-Etienne - 03/10/2020
2360
A 1-1 draw away from home at Nimes last weekend ensured Lens picked up another point to add to their tally and also extended Saturday’s host’s unbeaten run in Ligue 1 to four matches prior to the upcoming visit from fellow high-fliers, Saint-Etienne.
Although Lens suffered an opening day 2-1 defeat away from home at Nice, Lens have dusted themselves off and embarked upon a four-match unbeaten run in the French top flight which includes victories over PSG, Lorient and Bordeaux which should give the hosts impetus for this Saturday’s clash.
Even though Lens lost their opening match of the season, manager, Franck Haise, will be pleased that his side have hit the back of the net in each of their five league matches so far this season and they’ll be confident they can do so again on Saturday when they return to their Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
It’s still early days of course, but this Lens side look a different outfit to that which suffered relegation five years ago and they’ve lost just two of their previous nine meetings at home against Saint-Etienne.
Onto Saint-Etienne then, and the visitors have experienced almost the exact opposite start to this Ligue 1 season to that of their hosts, Lens, which is quite extraordinary; the visitors started out of the blocks in impressive fashion, winning their first three matches of the season.
Victories over Lorient, Strasbourg and Marseille handed Saint-Etienne the perfect start to this new French top flight season but they’ve since struggled a little by comparison as they drew 2-2 away from home at Nantes and then suffered a heavy defeat at home last weekend.
A 3-0 loss at home to Rennes may well serve as a ‘wake-up’ call to Saint-Etienne who had previously started their campaign in excellent fashion, and they now face a tricky trip to Lens on Saturday who are starting to gather some momentum of their own.
Saint-Etienne also suffered a horrific end to last season’s campaign away from home as they lost all of their final seven away matches on the trot, conceding a total of 16 goals and scoring just 6 in reply, while the bigger picture shows that the visitors have won just one of their last nine matches on their travels.
Both teams may well cancel each other out here as a result.
Home team
Away team
Pred
Correct score
Avg. goals
Weather conditions
Coef.
Score
Live
coef.
Fr1
353926
X
1 - 1
2.75
12°
3.70
1.83
3.70
4.70
1
1
-1
2 - 0(1 - 0)
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