Lorient vs St Etienne Predictions

• 11 of Lorient’s 14 home Ligue games have witnessed fewer than three goals.
• There have been three or more goals in just six of the visitor’s 14 away league matches.
• Eight of the last 11 meetings between these two teams have seen fere than three goals scored.

Lorient welcomes Saint-Etienne to Stade du Moustoir on Friday night in what is a huge game at the foot of the table and a win for either side gives them hope of avoiding the drop, the loser, however, will be edging closer to the trapdoor.

Lorient used to bouncing back

Lorient are coming off the back of a humiliating 5-1 defeat away to PSG last time out, their heaviest league defeat since December 2016, and they’ll need to get it together quickly for this monumental clash. There has been an odd pattern that could give Lorient a bit of hope ahead of this one as in the two other games in which they’ve conceded over 3.5 goals, they then followed them up with 2-0 wins. A strong start on home soil could be key here and it seems like it could be a closely fought opening 45 minutes given that only PSG have seen more first-half clean sheets when playing at home this season.

It seems that the new manager boost has well and truly come to Saint-Etienne’s aid lately and hopes of avoiding relegation are on the rise. They’ve been in exceptional form across their last nine games, losing just twice and those two defeats came at the hands of league leaders PSG and second-placed Marseille. They’re also on a run of five games unbeaten when playing bottom half teams, winning four of those. They’ll be hoping for a fast start here but will believe they can get the result they need to help them leapfrog their opponents to safety.

Game of few chances

We think this will be a tense game. There is so much on the line and these two are by no means prolific in front of goal. Lorient concedes an average of just a goal per home game, but Saint-Etienne struggle to score on their travels and we think those are key factors here. A loss for either side will be a severe blow to their survival hopes and avoiding that will be paramount. We don’t think this will be a thriller and we’re siding with under 2.5 goals to be scored here.

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