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Following promotion to the top-flight of French football last season, Saint-Etienne started slowly but went into the international break having improved as they now take on a Lens side coached by Will Still.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Saturday 19th October, 2024 - UK – 6:00pm / US ET – 1:00pm / US PT – 10:00am
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – Not televised / US – beIN Sports
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – Ligue 1 pas / US – beIN Sports
SAINT-ETIENNE PREVIEW: THE BIZARRE SEASON OF ASSE
Under the management of former Montpellier Herault boss Olivier Dall’Oglio, Saint-Etienne gained promotion to the top-flight of French football by beating Metz in the end of season Ligue 1/Ligue 2 promotion/relegation playoff, rewarding ASSE’s extremely dull and reactive style of football.
The home team have suffered four defeats in their opening seven matches of this season, including an 8-0 loss to Nice last month, but the hosts come into this one on the back of a 3-1 defeat of Auxerre at Stade Geoffrey-Guichard and they have now suffered just one defeat in their last four Ligue 1 matches.
LENS PREVIEW: LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS
Over the summer, Lens, who have punched above their weight in the last couple of seasons, lost manager Franck Haise to Nice and decided to replace him with English-Belgian coach, Will Still. It was a positive start to the campaign for the northerners but they have now endured something of a very frustrating run of form.
After beginning the season with back-to-back victories, Lens have now shared five successive draws and their most recent outing saw them draw 2-2 with Strasbourg a couple of weeks ago. They are one of just three teams, alongside Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain, to remain unbeaten after seven matches but only the bottom three have won fewer games than them.
SAINT-ETIENNE TEAM NEWS: PLENTY OF INJURIES
Saint-Etienne are dealing with quite a few injury issues for this weekend’s clash with Lens as Pierre Cornud, Ibrahima Wadji, Thomas Monconduit, Yvann Macon, Mahmoud Bentayg and Anthony Briancon are all sidelined.
PREDICTED XI (4-3-3): Larsonneur; Appiah, Batubinsika, Nade, Petrot; Moueffek, Ekwah, Amougou; Old, Sissoko, Davitashvili
UNAVAILABLE: Cornud (Injured), Wadji (Injured), Monconduit (Injured), Macon (Injured), Bentayg (Injured), Briancon (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
LENS TEAM NEWS: SEVERAL ISSUES
Austria defender Kevin Danso remains a doubt for Lens but Will Still is dealing with several other absentees such as Herve Koffi, Jonathan Gradit, Ruben Aguilar, Neil El Aynaoui, Jimmy Cabot and Martin Satriano.
PREDICTED XI (3-4-1-2): Samba; Sarr, Khusanov, Medina; Frankowski, Thomasson, Diouf, Jhoanner Chavez; Fulgini; Nzola, Said
UNAVAILABLE: Koffi (Injured), Bane (Injured), Gradit (Injured), Aguilar (Injured), El Aynaoui (Injured), Ojediran (Injured), Cabot (Injured), Martin Satriano (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE: Danso (Injured)
SAINT-ETIENNE VS LENS PREDICTION
The excellent performances of summer signings Ben Old and Zuriko Davitashvili against Auxerre, in which the latter scored a match-winning hat-trick, will give Saint-Etienne confidence they can hurt quite a few sides this season. They now take on a Lens side that will go to the Geoffrey-Guichard continuing to try and become more adventurous in order to pick up three important points. Both teams scoring would seem a good bet for this one.
SAINT-ETIENNE VS LENS TIP: BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE