Coupe de France betting tip: Troyes- Saint Etienne
Jan 24, 2018
Coupe de France: Troyes- Saint Etienne
I previewed St Etienne's last home game, with Toulouse 10 days ago.............
It is not often I venture into Ligue 1 nowadays, I prefer to leave that to Paul and LGF, but did discuss St Etienne ahead of their cup game with Nimes last week.......
We often look at the cup games in France being more open and high scoring affairs than the respective league games from the top two tiers. That is more frequently for the Coupe de la Ligue, as there are no lower level teams involved, unlike in this competition, but the general rule applies and we will go into that in more depth through later rounds. Today I just want to focus on the match up between St Etienne who are struggling in Ligue 1 and Nimes who are second in Ligue 2 and "our team".
The hosts have not won in ten league starts , losing 7 and conceding 24 goals, the run is all the more surprising as they took 17 points from a possible 27 to start the season , allowing just a single goal per game at that stage. They now sit one point above the drop zone and need to stop the rot and quickly, the run as been all the more alarming as they have finished top 8 in each of the last six seasons, St Etienne have played without rhythm or confidence since their last win way back in mid October and the only positive is that the Christmas break came before they hit rock bottom and gives them a chance to regroup. Jean-Louis Gasset has now taken charge of the team after 26 days as assistant and I guess that was always the plan unless results improved dramatically before the break.
He was appointed on December 20th so has had some time to impose himself, the players did have some of that time off, but spent the last week in Spain at a training camp where they went back to basics, did what Gasset described as a heavy workload and also focussed on the mental side of things and spoke several times about the break and trip to Spain being "good for their heads". He said that they club were trying to sign three players, but he was pleased that Loïc Perrin and Romain Hamouma had returned to the group, but the former has not made the squad today , adding that having them back was like two new signings. Hamouma has not started since October, which coincides with the terrible loss of form, when he plays 30 minutes or less, they are 1-3-7, but 4-2-2 when he is available. The head coach also spoke about Robert Beric who has returned from a not very successful loan spell at Anderlecht, he said he has finally recovered from his cruciate ligament injury and looked sharp in training and he goes staright into the squad. Gasset has approached several big name players he knows personally, including Yann M'Vila and Paul-Georges Ntep to try and get them to come to the club and get playing time and it will be interesting to see what business is done in the coming weeks. I feel we can expect some improvement today, but defensively they remain a concern until we see otherwise.
That was not great as a contest, with Nimes playing over 80 minutes with ten men, St Etienne won 2-0 and we spoke yesterday (West Bromwich Albion) about how teams can turn things around, or at least give themselves a chance to, with any win, regardless of opposition , or how the victory came about. There was some good stuff in my notes and Beric scored the opening goal and the signing of M'Vila has now been made. Perrin is also now back in the matchday squad ( see all three above). I will leave the rest to LGF and their notes on the game are also reproduced at the foot of the page. Saints play two on the road next week (full midweek round) and this is their big opportunity to get back on track and give themselves some breathing room over the relegation zone.
I sided with St Etienne and they won 2-0 but rode their luck at times, the signings of M-Vila and Ntep are now complete and both played in a 1-0 loss away to Nice last weekend, that result leaves them still in big relegation trouble and they have made it clear where their priorities lie this week and ALL 11 starters from the weekend game will not only be rested and saved for the home game with Caen in three days time, but have been spared the eight hour round trip and none have made the squad for this evening. Of the ten senior players outfield named, two are teenagers, there is only one central defender, no left sided midfielder and another seven are from the B team and in total, 13 are aged between 18-23 and most have limited or no first team experience, you will see in the listed squad below, that many do not even have squad numbers.
Troyes are in a very similar situation in the league, only a point better off than St Etienne, but are at home and appear to be treating the competition and supporters with greater respect. Their squad contains 8 players who started in the win over Lille at the weekend and all who were on the bench, the three who have dropped out all have senior replacements who are battling for a starting place. This should be a comfortable home win 3-0/3-1.
1.75 units Troyes -0.5 ball 2.47 asian line /Sportmarket.
1.25 units "over" 2.75 goals 2.52 asian line/Sportmarket.
Troyes: Mamadou Samassa, Erwin Zelazny, Jérémy Cordoval, Mathieu Deplagne, Gabriel, Jimmy Giraudon, Johann Obiang, Oswaldo Vizcarrondo,François Bellugou, Aloïs Confais, Stéphane Darbion, Benjamin Nivet, Bryan Pelé, Rémi Walter,Samuel Grandsir, Adama Niane, Mamadou Sissako, Jonathan Tinhan.
St Etienne : 30.Jessy MOULIN ; 40.Alexis GUENDOUZ, 3.Alexandros KATRANIS ; 12.Cheikh MBENGUE ; 19.Florentin POGBA ; 29.Ronaël PIERRE-GABRIEL ; Ben-Kantie KARAMOKO, 13.Habib MAÏGA; 17.Ole SELNAES ; 20.Azevedo HERNANI ; Dylan CHAMBOST ; Kenny ROCHA SANTOS ; Mahdi CAMARA ; Wesley FOFANA, 14.Jonathan BAMBA ; 21.Romain HAMOUMA ; 23.Alexander SODERLUND ; Vagner DIAS GONCALVES ; Samy BAGHDADI.
Good Luck.
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