French football is back this weekend with a full slate of fixtures across Ligue 1. There’s plenty to get excited about up and down the top flight and as we enter the last few weeks of February, it’ll be interesting to see who can start to build some momentum ahead of the next few months. Today, we’ll be taking a look at what should be a fun encounter between Strasbourg and Brest.
Strasbourg Form GuideStrasbourg, in the eyes of romantic football historians, hold a special place in the annals of the French game. However, after barely avoiding relegation last season, there’s a lot of pressure on them to perform. They have a nice blend of veterans and young talent and if the first few months are anything to go by, they’ve found a solid enough structure to work with in the months ahead.
Strasbourg had 18 shots, 63% possession and a whole lot of desire at points during their game with Lorient - but for whatever reason, they just couldn’t get firing. They fell behind in a bad way and couldn’t get out from underneath it, slipping to a bad 3-1 defeat.
Brest Form GuideStade Brestois 29 were not a million miles away from slipping into the relegation picture last season, and that’s worth remembering when you take a look at just how well they’ve looked thus far. Sure, there’s a bigger argument to be had about the state of the top flight as a whole, but Brest are looking like the kind of team who could really cause some problems between now and May.
Brest are absolutely on fire right now and their win over Marseille proved that. They went down to ten men in the 60th minute, but in the 88th, it was Pierre Lees-Melou who scored a dramatic late winner to keep their slim title hopes alive.
Match PredictionWe believe this one is going to come down to confidence and from where we’re stood, one team has a whole lot more of that than the other. Strasbourg, in our view, don’t have the infrastructure to hang in this game, which is why we’re going to predict a comfortable Brest win.
