The newsletter today was fairly brief, just three short match previews, not a standard email by any means, regardless of which, there were some interesting stats and you can read a selection of those and one of the mini previews below...........
Yesterday I wrote..........
We have spoken often about early rounds in this competition producing more goals than standard Ligue 1 or 2 games and that remains true, albeit not quite to the same degree, over the later stages when teams do take the chance to win some silverware more seriously.
Last five seasons of "Round of 16" matches have seen 52.5% go "over" with 30% producing four or more and that is still significantly above the league averages this season of circa 40% and 20% respectively. Home wins have been running at 52.5% also and that is way above the norm and they were 62.5% for the previous five years before last season. You could view that as a "shift", but was more likely a blip and a good starting point for looking at this round of games is that they will have a strong home bias and produce more goals, both of which make sense anyway, with teams already having one eye on the mini Christmas break and starting to tire a little at the end of the first half of the campaign.
The four matches played on Tuesday hit those averages more or less and we can expect more of the same tonight and one or two of this evening's four games should produce four or more goals.
Bordeaux- AS Monaco
Match preview available only to clubgowi subscribers.
Bordeaux: Carrasso, Prior - Contento, Guilbert, Poundjé, Ambrose, Yambéré - Khazri, Maulun, Ounas, Plasil, Poko, Saivet, Traoré, Vada - Diabaté, Laborde, Rolan, Kiese Thelin.
ASM: Nardi, Sy - Carvalho, Echiejilé, Fabinho, Raggi, Wallace - Bakayoko, Bahlouli, Boschilia, Dirar, Gil, Helder, Lemar, Mexique, Pasalic, Silva, Toulalan - Cavaleiro, Mbappé.
Bourg en Bresse Peronnas -Olympique de Marseille
Match preview available only to clubgowi subscribers.
BEBP: Scannella, Callamand, Ogier, Perradin, Faivre, Traore, Alphonse, Goyon, Nirlo, N'Simba, Dembele, Berthomier, Boussaha, Ba, Boujedra, Dimitriou, Damour, Moisy.
OM:Mandanda, Pelé, De Ceglie, Djadjédjé, Manquillo, Mendy, Nkoulou, Rekik, Pepe, Sparagna, Isla, Lopez, Cabella, Romao, Sarr, Silva, Zambo Anguissa,Ocampos, Batshuayi.
Olympique Lyonnais- Tours
Just one win in seven for Lyon, away to Valencia of all places, in a match which was fairly meaningless for them. They have been terribly hard hit by injury, but the situation is easing and they have named a strong squad for today, or at least the strongest available, knowing that they could really do with a win and to start building some confidence. Valbuena and Lacazette will be back after Christmas and they need a bit of a performance tonight and some self belief to erase that heavy defeat to PSG at the weekend and to take to Gazelec.
Tours are themselve struggling for form and have won just twice in ten starts, they are without a few experienced players and six of the seven midfielders named have an average age of just 20 ( the other has not managed more than an hour in the last two months) and this is the area where I expect Lyon to really dominate and prove their one division plus superiority. Players like Mvuemba, Malbranque (pictured), Gonalons, Grenier etc should enjoy themselves and I expect a comfortable win eventually, but again, like for OM, it might take time, with Tours almost certain to tire in the final quarter.
1.75 units Olympique Lyonnais -1.25 goals 2.03 asian line/Sportmarket.
Lyon : Lopes, Gorgelin - Morel, Bedimo, Koné, Yanga-Mbiwa, Jallet - Darder, Del Castillo, Tolisso, Ferri, Gonalons, Mvuemba, Malbranque, Grenier, G. Perrin - Cornet, Ghezzal, Beauvue.
Tours : Kamara, Westberg - Miguel, Bouhours, Cillard, Gradit, Louvion - Santamaria, Belkebla, Bergougnoux, Maouche, Khaoui, Raveloson, Do Couto - Tandia, Kouakou, Malfleury, Miracoli.
Good Luck.
