Bastia vs Saint-Etienne Betting Tips & Predictions

Bastia are one of the few teams in Ligue 1 without much left to play for for the remainder of the season. The bottom and the top of the table are all extremely tight, with as many as eight teams challenging for a European qualification position and up to six teams in the relegation battle.

Bastia, however, lie slap bang in the middle of these sections. Their nine point cushion over the drop zone will have them feeling fairly comfortable in that respect, but a ten point gap between them and the top four is probably a bit out of their reach.

This has shown in recent weeks as well, with their lack of motivation leaving them with just one win from their last six matches in all competitions. To be fair to them, only two of these games have ended in defeat.

Saint-Etienne are one of the teams challenging for a European spot. They have collected a very respectable 51 points so far, leaving them just four points off 2nd placed Lyon and within a win of breaking into the top four.

The visitors are in excellent form as well. They have won three matches on the trot to break out of a poor run which saw them lose four and draw two in a run of six games without a win in all competitions.

Both of these sides have been struggling to score of late. Bastia have seen a total of nine goals scored in their last six home matches, with six of those being scored by them. Saint-Etienne have scored just three goals in their last four away matches.

In addition to very few goals being scored by either team, they are also largely scored in the 2nd half. Bastia have seen four of their last six home matches go into the half time break goalless, and both Bastia’s and Saint-Etienne’s most common scoreline at half-time is 0-0, with a goalless draw at half-time occurring in 47% of their respective home and away matches. This makes odds of 29/20 for Under 0.5 First Half Goals look very valuable to me, and I’m backing that along with a 1-0 Saint-Etienne win at 24/5.