AS Monaco – St Etienne

Friday night football in Ligue 1, with AS Monaco hosting Saint Etienne in the first match of the 31st round.

Monaco (who is the only team with only 29 games played) sits on the 4th place, 4 points away from the last Champions League place … so not a bad position for the hosts. Monaco looks able to recover the distance the way they have been playing recently … qualifying over Arsenal in UCL and having 4 wins and 1 draw in the last 5 Ligue 1 matches … only draw coming 4 rounds ago vs. PSG. Monaco is renowned for having the best defense in Ligue 1, but hosts have been surprisingly effective in front of goal lately: 9 goals scored and only 2 allowed in the last 3 rounds.

Lacina Traore and Carvalho will not be in AS Monaco’s lineup today. Bakayoko and Alain Traore could also miss the game.

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Saint Etienne is playing surprisingly good football at the moment … I say surprising because the team has a very large number of absentees. Pogba, Cohade, Sall, Gradel, Clement and Hamouma are out. Brison and Moulin could also miss out from the lineup. But most of the injuries are long term so Saint Etienne learned to play without these guys: initially it was a very bad run of results, but now the team is undefeated in 6 competitive games and has 3 wins in a row … climbing back to the 5th place, only 1 point behind Monaco and 5 behind third placed Olympique Marseille.

Both teams need the points today, but Monaco is much more likely to reach that objective. Hosts are in tremendous form … when their offense clicks like this, they are almost impossible to beat, because the defense is as good as ever. St Etienne is used to fielding a weakened lineup but today Gradel and Clement are also suspended, so it could hurt the visitors … I bet it will be much harder to cope with all those missings vs. a team like Monaco than vs. Lorient or Lille. The home side really needs to get as many points as possible before Champions League returns, so the next two matches are crucial. My tip will be Monaco to win. Correct score prediction: AS Monaco – Saint Etienne 2-1.

Pick: Monaco
Odds: 1.96 @ Sbobet
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 7.68
Event date: 3 April