Marseille vs Nantes prediction: FRANCE: Ligue 1 betting tips on match 2022-08-19 19:00.
Last season’s Ligue 1 runners up Marseille welcome the 2021/22 Coupe de France winners Nantes, a side the hosts beat home and away last season after Nantes saw red in both games. New Marseille manager Igor Tudor has made a respectable start to his tenure (W1, D1), but tensions are rising behind the scenes with players openly disagreeing with the new boss' methods. Those tensions might be being borne out on the pitch as Marseille hold a poor disciplinary record heading into this, with a considerable six bookings across the first two rounds, including one for Tudor!
If Tudor wants to keep the passionate Marseille faithful off his back, then he’ll need to keep producing results and perhaps oversee something similar to last season’s six-game unbeaten start. One source of encouragement is Marseille’s improvement at home, as they have won as many home league games across the last six (W5, L1) as they did in their 14 prior.
A four-game unbeaten run in games against Nantes could further buoy home confidence (W3, D1), but Antoine Kombouaré has overseen a solid, yet unremarkable start to Nantes’ league campaign (D2). The Canaries might be big outsiders for a first league win of 2022/23, but they often put up a good fight at this venue, scoring in each of their last seven visits and winning two of the previous four.
If Nantes have any hope of bettering their ninth place finish last season, then they will need to improve on their travels as they’ve only picked up one away league victory in 2022 (W1, D4, L5). There is some optimism though, as Kombouaré’s men avoided defeat in 56% of their league games entered as betting outsiders since last season (W7, D7, L11), so they might run a disgruntled Marseille side close.
Players to watch: Marseille’s Dimitri Payet has scored four and assisted one goal across his last four H2Hs with Nantes, contributing to victory on three occasions. As for Nantes, defender Andrei Girotto assisted their only league goal this term and has scored more goals against Marseille (two) than against any other French side in his career.
Hot stat: Visiting manager Kombouaré has lost more games against Marseille (19) than any other opponent.