Lens vs Brest prediction: FRANCE: Ligue 1 betting tips on match 2024-03-08 20:00.
[p]Saturday evening’s Ligue 1 action comes at the home of Lens, who entered this round hanging on to their position in the final European qualification spot. They did well to bounce back from a four-game winless run which saw them tumble out of Europe and lose ground in the league with an impressive 3-0 away win at Lyon, but their work is far from complete in their quest to secure another season on the continental stage. [/p]
[p]Lens will take to the Estadio Bollaert-Delelis pitch having failed to win four of their last five competitive outings here (D1, L3). Franck Haise’s charges conceded before half-time in each of those defeats, so tightening up in the early stages is perhaps key to tipping the scales in what is a balanced personal H2H record against second-placed Brest (W3, D2, L3).[/p]
[p]Behind usual runway leaders PSG, Brest have become comfortably the best of the rest in Ligue 1 after putting together a 13-game unbeaten top-flight run (W9, D4), with their most recent two victories serving to cut the gap to the leaders to nine points. That’s hardly believable for a side who’ve never qualified for Europe, nevermind the UEFA Champions League, which they’re on course to be partaking in for the first time ever next season. [/p]
[p]Brest played in the second tier as recently as 2018/19, and it is manager Éric Roy who has masterminded that turnaround, but just one win in his six personal clashes against bogey side Lens (W1, D3, L2) could be an immediate concern. A failure to win in three of the last four away games heightens that sense of uncertainty for Brest (D2, L1), although only Lorient have won more games than their five as pre-match league outsiders (W5, D3, L4). [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Florian Sotoca’s match-opening goal for Lens last time out secured what is now his sixth consecutive season with at least ten league goal contributions (G5, A5). As for Brest, Pierre Lees-Melou has proven invaluable in recent weeks as he has scored his side’s sole goal in three of his last four appearances. [/p]
[p]Hot stat: Brest are unbeaten and boast a league-high 2.69 points per game when scoring first this season (W11, D2). [/p]