Le Havre vs Lens Preview: Team News & Prediction

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Didier Digard is under immense pressure in charge of Le Havre as the strugglers now take on an inconsistent and frustrated Lens side at Stade Oceane in this weekend’s encounter.

Kick-off date/time: Sunday 12th January, 2025: UK – 2:00pm / US ET – 11:00am / US PT – 8:00am

How to watch on TV: UK – Not televised / US – beIN Sports

How to watch online: UK – Ligue 1 pass / US – beIN Sports

Le Havre Preview: Digard’s issues

Former Middlesbrough midfielder Didier Digard replaced Luka Elsner over the summer at Le Havre and just about remains in charge but they begin this weekend’s round of fixtures sitting second-from-bottom and in the automatic relegation places in Ligue 1.

The home team returned from the Ligue 1 winter break last weekend with a 5-1 annihilation at the hands of Olympique de Marseille at Stade Velodrome last weekend. Marseille were 5-0 up in that game before a late consolation scored by former Marseille forward Andre Ayew.

Lens Preview: Looking for more at Lens

Will Still has a difficult job on his hands at Lens after the northerners failed in a couple of big money sales last summer so this January transfer window has started with the sale of Brice Samba to Stade Rennais and likely departure of Abdukodir Khusanov to Manchester City.

The visitors sit just outside of the European spots in Ligue 1 ahead of this match day but they started the year with a slender 1-0 defeat at home to Toulouse last weekend after going down to ten men with a 73rd minute winning penalty scored by Zakaria Aboukhlal.

Le Havre Team News: A few injuries

Andre Ayew has returned to Le Havre but they are dealing with several injury concerns for this weekend’s clash with Lens. Daren Misengo remains sidelined with the likes of Josue Casimir and Daler Kuzyayev among the injury doubts.

Predicted XI (3-5-2): Desmas; Pembele, Kinkoue, Lloris; Nego, Kuzyayev, Toure, Kechta, Zouaoui; Housni, Ayew

Unavailable: Mosengo (Injured)

Questionable: Casimir (Injured), Kitala (Injured), Soumare (Injured), Sabbi (Injured), Kuzyayev (Injured)

Lens Team News: Khusanov and Samba departures

As mentioned, Lens will field a new goalkeeper this weekend and they have brought in Pau Lopez on loan to replace Samba. Khusanov is also someone that seems unlikely to play with his move to City now edging closer.

Predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Pau Lopez; Frankowski, Danso, Sarr, Deiver Machado; Thomasson, Diouf; Sotoca, Fulgini, Zaroury; Nzola

Unavailable: Aguilar (Injured), Costa (Suspended), Satriano (Injured)

Questionable: Medina (Injured), El Aynaoui (Injured), Labeau Lascary (Injured), Said (Injured)

Le Havre vs Lens Prediction

At the start of this season, Le Havre earned themselves some impressive results and also enjoyed some positive performances. However, they have since struggled and after narrowly avoiding the bottom three last year, they appear destined for the drop this time around. They now face a Lens side that have been inconsistent and started shoddily last season but a lower scoring away win does appear the likeliest outcome for this one at Stade Oceane.

Le Havre vs Lens Tip: Lens to win & under 3.5 goals