Saint-Etienne can dig in and earn a 1-1 draw against Lens.
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Saint-Etienne welcome Lens to the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on Saturday evening, currently sitting four points behind their opponents.
Les Verts are reasonably happy with the way they have started the season. They have won the French top flight on 10 occasions, a number only surpassed by PSG. However, they have been languishing in the second tier since the end of the 21/22 campaign.
Saint-Etienne have seven points after as many matches. After starting the season with a three-game losing streak, fans likely feared the worst, but things started looking up prior to the international break.
Will Still landed the job at Lens in the summer after departing Stade Reims at the back end of last season. His former club were battling relegation when they appointed him, but he steered them to an 11th-place finish. They were still in 11th place when he left the club in May.
Lens have given Will Still the chance to prove his worth in the upper echelons of Ligue 1. Les Sang et Or finished 2nd as recently as the 2022/23 season. They are 6th in the league heading into this weekend’s fixture.
The probable lineup for Saint-Etienne in the “system of play.”
Larsonneur; Appiah, Batubinsika, Nade, Petrol; Mouffek, Ekwah, Amougou; Old, Davitashvili, Sissoko
The probable lineup for Lens in the “system of play.”
Samba; Sarr, Khusanov, Medina; Aguilar, Thomason, Diouf, Chavez; Fulgini, Nzola, Said
Saint-Etienne have shown their ability in recent outings, especially at home. They have won their last two matches in front of their own fans in Ligue 1. The 1-0 win over Lille, who are competing in the Champions League this season, was arguably Olivier Dall’Oglio’s side’s best performance. Despite having just 29% possession, they finished with a higher xG than their opponents.
Lens remain unbeaten, but remarkably, their last five matches in Ligue 1 have ended in a draw. They’ve gone six matches without a win, including an away loss to Panathinaikos in the Europa Conference League qualifying, and we are backing a sixth consecutive draw here.
Zuriko Davitashvili stole the headlines in Saint-Etienne’s last game against Auxerre by bagging a hat-trick. However, the winger has also been a creative force, and Ibrahim Sissoko has benefitted from that. As a result, we are backing the striker to score in this Saint-Etienne vs Lens predictions piece.
Sissoko has netted two league goals so far this season, both of which came in the recent away draw against Nantes. The Mali international followed that up with a strong performance in the win over Auxerre. Ibrahim managed an assist in that game, and his total xG of 0.64 suggests he could have easily added a goal to his tally.
Scoring goals has been a real problem for Saint-Etienne so far this season. They have netted an average of 0.86 goals per game in Ligue 1, with only Angers scoring fewer.
Lens may be 6th in the league heading into the weekend, but they find themselves in the same boat. They have been scoring an average of one goal per game, the fourth fewest in Ligue 1. Fortunately for Will Still, his team have been defensively solid, so Lens matches have seen the fewest goals in the division, with an average of 1.57.
Saint-Etienne have averaged just 42% thus far. They are likely to adopt a more defensive approach to stay solid against a side struggling to break teams down. Hence, under 2.5 goals seems to be an appealing option in this Saint-Etienne vs Lens predictions piece.