Third-placed St Etienne look to maintain their unbeaten home record in the league as they play host to mid-table Montpellier in the French Ligue 1.
St Etienne have had a great start to the season and sit third in the French Ligue 1 table, behind PSG and Monaco. A narrow defeat at Troyes at the beginning of October is their only loss in the last five and they are currently unbeaten from five at home. Three goals in the last sixteen minutes gave them a win over Metz last weekend, to make it three victories and two draws from their five league matches as hosts.
France Ligue 1 – Geoffroy Guichard, Saint-Étienne – Friday 20th October – 19:45 UK Time
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Draw Best Odd of: 2 at Ladbrokes |
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St Etienne
MontpellierMontpellier
Montpellier currently sit mid-table with only three victories from their nine matches so far. However, they have bounced back from a run of just one win in five to win two and draw two in a run of four matches unbeaten. Their solid defensive qualities were on, with just one goal conceded in the last four games. One of those was a 0-0 draw against free-scoring PSG. A 2-0 win over Nice last weekend is the first time this season they have scored more than one goal in a match, with just seven goals netted in total.
Head to Head
After twenty-three meetings since 1994, St Etienne hold a clear head-to-head advantage with fourteen victories. Montpellier have won seven times, and just two have finished level. The most recent meeting was a 1-0 Montpellier win in a friendly in July this year. The visitors for this match also won the most recent league meeting, 2-1 at home in February. However, Montpellier have only beaten St Etienne once in eleven as the visitors. That win came back in October 1995. St Etienne have won eight of the last nine as hosts, with the other being a 1-1 draw in 2011.
Betting Odds and Predictions
Despite the distance between these teams in league position, and St Etienne’s brilliant home record this season, there isn’t much to choose between them with regards betting odds. St Etienne are the favourites, but at extremely good value odds of 11/10 with Bet 365. Montpellier are priced at 14/5, and the draw is 2 at Ladbrokes.
Considering the fact there has only ever been two draws in meetings between these sides, 2 looks to be poor odds for the draw. We believe St Etienne will be too strong for Montpellier here, and think the 11/10 on offer is a great price. Montpellier have only won once on the road this season, and they will find this tough against a team who seem to get better as hosts. In saying that, we think it will be a narrow victory in a low-scoring affair.
Both teams are strong defensively, and they are not known for their attacking prowess. Therefore, we believe backing St Etienne to win and Under 2.5 Goals is a fantastic bet at odds of 3/1. Punters who just want to back Under 2.5 Goals can do so at odds of 8/15. Montpellier have conceded 67% of the goals against them in the first half, and scored 86% of the goals they’ve netted in the second half. So, statistically, this points to St Etienne leading at half time.
St Etienne in the Half Time result market is priced at 15/8. The home side are also available at odds of 5/2 in the HT/FT market. Neither team have a real stand-out goal scorer this term, so we have ignored first and anytime scorer markets for this game.
Top Betting Tip
Our top betting tip for this match is a St Etienne victory, albeit a narrow one, at odds of 11/10 with Bet 365.