Marseille vs Lens prediction: FRANCE: Ligue 1 betting tips on match 2024-04-27 19:00.
[p]A frustrating 2-2 draw against Nice on Wednesday extended Marseille’s winless Ligue 1 run to five successive matches (D2, L3) and means that they remain five points adrift of the European places with just four rounds of the league campaign left to play. Should Les Olympiens miss out on a top-six finish though, they could still find themselves playing in continental football next season if they go on to lift this year’s UEFA Europa League. [/p]
[p]Before their tantalising two-legged semi-final against Atalanta in that competition, Marseille face sixth-placed Lens, a team they’ve lost to in their last three meetings. Any pessimism because of that recent record will be tempered though by the fact that only Paris Saint-Germain and Lille have amassed more Ligue 1 home wins this term than Marseille heading into the weekend, while only PSG have got the better of them at the Stade Vélodrome over 90 minutes in any competition this campaign[/p]
[p]It may not have been wholly convincing, but Lens’ 1-0 defeat of bottom-side Clermont last Saturday ended a sequence of just one point from a possible 12 that threatened to derail their own European push this term. The Blood and Gold’s bid for a second successive UEFA Champions League campaign looks to have passed them by, and they definitely need to improve on a run of just one victory from their last five league games (D1, L3) if they are to remain comfortably clear of the top six chasers behind them. [/p]
[p]That frustrating set of results has seen Franck Haise’s outfit squander leads against strugglers Metz and Le Havre along the way, with those games part of a six-match league run in which they’ve scored exactly once each time. With goals at a premium, it will be somewhat comforting for Lens that heading into this round of Ligue 1 fixtures, only PSG and Nice have conceded fewer away goals in 2023/24 than their 16.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Jonathan Clauss marked his return from injury with Marseille’s opener against Nice, but he’s lost all four H2Hs against Lens, his former club. Ex-teammate Florian Sotoca will aim to make that five here, having scored half of his eight goals this season from the penalty spot.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Five of Marseille’s last six matches have been level at half-time. [/p]