St Etienne – Lens

Friday night football in Ligue 1, as Saint Etienne hosts RC Lens in the 24th round of the French league.

Saint Etienne will have to play this match without a lot of players and will need to improvise a bit in the lineup. Gradel, Diomande, Monnet-Paquet, Cohade, Pogba, Corgnet, Clerc and Bayal Sall are all unavailable. These injuries and African Cup of Nations call-ups had a big impact on Saint Etienne lately … the hosts won a single game from the last 5 (in extra time vs. Tours) and lost 3, including the last two matches. They failed to score in 4 of these last 5 matches. Last week Saint Etienne was defeated 1-0 by Caen.

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Lens is much healthier and will only miss El Jadeyaoui, N’Diaye, Landre and possibly Touzghar from the lineup. But the good health is not helping Lens too much … second to last place, 2 draws and 2 losses in the last 4 games. Last week Lens played a decent game vs. Bastia but still needed a late penalty to salvage a draw. It does not look likely that Lens can avoid relegation … the squad is poor for Ligue 1 standards, there are some financial problems and overall the team is not playing good football.

Normally St Etienne should get an easy win at home vs. Lens but with all those missing players the hosts just can’t find a way to win at the moment … I still think they will take the three points but the odds are not worth the risk. The under over market is much more interesting in my opinion and I can not see many goals being scored. St Etienne is having huge problems to create chances and did not score in 4 of the last 5 games … Lens is scoring less than 1 goal per game in average and could well go scoreless in such a hard road game.

Both teams out of form and struggling, I expect an ugly game with very few goal scoring chances … my tip is both teams to score – NO. I think it`s better than the under 2,5 goals bet, because if St Etienne somehow finds their best form, they can win say 3-0 and blow the under. Correct score prediction: Saint Etienne – Lens 1-0.

Pick: Both to score – No
Odds: 1.67 @ Bet365
Stake: 9
Possible profit: 6.03
Event date: 6 February