France: Ligue 2: Tours -Niort
Billy Ketkeophomphone is suspended for Tours today, he has four goals in his last five starts, including two in the 3-2 road win at in form Auxerre last week, ahead of which I wrote .....
What a second half of the season this is turning into for Auxerre, they reached the final of the national cup last midweek which is something to look forward to at the end of this season, especially after a couple of long years of misery on and off the pitch and they have also managed to get themselves onto the coattails of the promotion race and actually sit just four points off third place and five adrift of GFCO in second. That is important as they have a very nice run of games over the next month, with 3 of 4 at home starting today and ending with a visit from GFCO, the road trip inbetween is a visit to basement club Chateauroux who are in freefall, already effectively 12 points from safety and close to relegation confirmation, when bad luck turns, things can go very well indeed and Auxerre are riding a very confident wave and are looking for it to take them as far as possible. If we split the season up into thirds ( we have played 31 games), the hosts have improved through each and only highfling Angers have collected more points from the last ten starts. They will surely go all out for the win today and we know that is pretty much the only way that Tours can play, the visitors are three points from safety and I hope that they survive as they play the right way, but they have collected only 7 points from 10 starts and have struggled to hold onto a lead, dropping an incredible 12 points from losing positions from their last six games alone !
Hosts are without Gragnic, Baby and Lefebvre in midfield which leaves them short of options, they have been without any two of these for quite some time, but not often have the trio all been absent, they have gone with a lot of "forwards" today and Tours have as usual a similar looking squad, with a lot of offensive options and both might be looking to get the ball forward as quickly as possible and to by pass the midfield completely on occasion. First goal for either side is likely to see this get VERY stretched.
That played out largely as we expected, with Tours leading early, but this time holding onto the lead and winning 3-2. That was a massive result for them, it was not enough to take them out of the bottom three, but they are within three points of three teams and the likelihood is that a win today would take them above all of that trio. Ketkeophomphone will be a loss, but it is not like Tours do not have plenty of offensive options and they have named five strikers again tonight and it is easy to make a case for goals.
Niort are coming off a 3-2 win over Nimes last week, that was another match where we went for goals and those notes are reproduced in full under the "good luck" sign off. They are perhaps not 100% safe from relegation, but 43 points has been enough to secure a place in Ligue 2 in each of the last three campaigns and with six rounds to play and having lost just seven times all season ( a LOT of draws), I doubt they will be looking over their shoulder too much and as a buffer/back up, they have a home game with basement club Chateauroux next weekend. The visitors are one of those teams, a little like Nimes, who are willing to play a far more open style and game, if the opponent is of a similar mindset and we know that Tours can really only play on the front foot.
Only five recent meetings between these two, both teams have scored in each, with games averaging 3.4 goals and this looks highly likely to follow suit. Niort have an unchanged squad from last week.
1.5 units "over" 2.5 goals 2.05 asian line/Sportmarket.
Tours : Bertrand, Kamara, Bouhours, Gradit, Milosevic, Schwechlen, Touré, Belkebla, Berenguer, Chavalerin, Santamaria, Bergougnoux, Delort, Diaz, Kouakou, Tandia.
Niort : Delecroix, Roche - Lahaye, Sans, Barbet, Bernard, Bong - Koukou, Malcuit, Roye, Diaw, Martin, Tigroudja - Koné, Dona Ndoh, Ba.
Good Luck.
