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Saint-Etienne are a force of French football and the newly-promoted giants will be encouraged by their performance, despite a defeat in Monaco, last weekend. Le Havre, on the other hand, are looking likely to be involved in this season’s relegation battle.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Saturday 24th August, 2024 - UK – 8:00pm / US ET – 3:00pm / US PT – 12:00pm
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – TBC / US – beIN Sports or beIN Sports de Espanol
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – TBC / US – Fubo or Fanatiz
SAINT-ETIENNE PREVIEW: ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE GREENS
Last season, as Saint-Etienne managed to propel themselves back into the top-flight of French football, they scored just 48 goals and conceded just 31 in what was an incredibly dull style of football with fairly dull management under former Montpellier boss Olivier Dall’Oglio with Ivan Gazidis as club president.
Saint-Etienne’s dull but potentially effective style of football was on show at Stade Louis II last weekend as they suffered just a 1-0 loss to one of the most attacking teams in French football in Monaco with a first-half strike from Takumi Minamino for the Monagasque the only goal of the game.
LE HAVRE PREVIEW: DIDIER DIGARD GETTING TO GRIPS
After returning to Ligue 1 for the first time in 15 years last season, Le Havre managed to steer themselves clear of relegation in what was a season of overperformance. Slovenian coach Luka Elsner has since departed the club for Stade de Reims and he has been replaced by former Middlesbrough midfielder Didier Digard in the dugout.
Digard’s reign began with a relatively positive performance as Gautier Lloris, brother of Hugo, scored a 48th minute equaliser against defending champions Paris Saint-Germain but the Parisiens then pulled away with three late goals to condemn Le Havre to an opening day 4-1 hammering at Stade Oceane.
SAINT-ETIENNE TEAM NEWS: LEFT-BACK IRRITATIONS
On the opening day of the season, Dall’Oglio will have been left frustrated not to be able to field left-back Mahmoud Bentayg, who is currently unavailable after picking up an unknown injury late in pre-season.
As well as Bentayg, Saint-Etienne may be able to welcome back Aimen Moueffek this weekend after the youngster missed the opening day of the season with a dead leg.
PREDICTED XI (4-1-4-1): Larsonneur; Owusu, Batubinsika, Abdelhamid, Nzuzi; Tardieu; Davitashvili, Old, Amougou, Cafaro; Sissoko
UNAVAILABLE: Bentayg (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE: Moueffek (Injured)
LE HAVRE TEAM NEWS: LOGBO MISSING FOR LE HAVRE
As well as Liverpool, Le Havre are one of two sides in Europe’s six biggest leagues yet to sign a single player this summer so Didier Digard does appear to be operating with one hand behind his back.
They did put in a relatively impressive performance against PSG on the opening day, though, so there is an expectation that they name an unchanged eleven for this weekend with striker Andy Logbo remaining unavailable.
PREDICTED XI (4-3-3): Desmas; Nego, Kinkoue, Lloris, Operi; Kuzyayev, Toure, Ndiaye; Kechta, Casimir, Joujou
UNAVAILABLE: Logbo (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
SAINT-ETIENNE VS LE HAVRE PREDICTION
This one does have a chance of being a game that neutrals should avoid watching at all costs. As mentioned, Saint-Etienne got their success last season by being extremely effective – which came at the cost of being extremely painful to watch. Le Havre, even with a change of management making them slightly more proactive, simply lack much quality in attack so a low-scoring encounter appears inevitable for this one as Ligue 1 football returns to the Geoffrey-Guichard.
SAINT-ETIENNE VS LE HAVRE TIP: UNDER 2.5 GOALS