Ahead of the last round of games in the Coupe de la Ligue , which came at the end of October, I spoke about the open nature of the games in this competition and that was how they played out, with eight of the ten going "over" and six producing at least four goals, with all matches averaging 3.7 goals, the mean in Ligue 1 this season is 2.43 and Ligue 2 is running at 2.28, so you can see that teams tend to throw off the shackles and go for it more in these fixtures. Last year the schedule was the same as this season, with the competion being pushed back for the first time and this round being played between the final two league fixtures before the Christmas break. That saw the round of 16 games, produce six "overs", with both teams also scoring in six and the host team prevailing in 7 of those 8 , only one match went to extra time.
 

There must be a good chance for this week's fixtures to play out similarly, I like stats when there is a reason for them and these look easy to explain. Firstly, the round is scheduled when teams are already tired and looking forward to their mini Christmas break, clubs are not used to playing a lot of midweek games in France anyway and this is the least important of the three domestic competitions. Having played last weekend and then with another league fixture in a couple of days time, it makes sense that the cup game will have lower priority, especially for those teams who have to travel and who are not playing in front of their own supporters.