Soccer France Ligue 1 Prediction

Lille vs Nantes - Match Preview

⚽ 27 May 2023 - 19:00 GMT +0

Lille kept their top-five destiny in their own hands with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory against Marseille last Saturday. Now a win here for Paulo Fonseca’s side could secure European football for a fourth time in five campaigns, and they have clear momentum after just two defeats in their last dozen outings (W6, D4), alongside an unbeaten run of 15 clashes against Nantes.

Overall, a fifth straight home win seems very likely for Lille, with late goals a significant possibility, as seven of Le LOSC’s last 12 home points gained have come via strikes in the 70th+ minutes. That said, Lille’s next opponents were long beaten by that milestone last weekend, going down 3-0 to Montpellier to register a 13th straight league match without a victory (D5, L8).

That also marked a fourth successive scoring blank and another negative contribution to Nantes’ atrocious league record as pre-match underdogs this term (W1, D10, L14). But worst of all, another defeat coupled with a victory for Auxerre would see the Canaries relegated with a game to spare after ten unbroken seasons amongst France’s elite.

Nantes have been firmly in the habit of collapsing after false starts on hostile turf too, having trailed 2-0 at a point in six of their last seven away league defeats. This suggests that a first win at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy since September 2015 is unlikely, though they’ve only failed to score once in their four most recent visits to this venue.

📋 Players to watch: Jonathan David sparked Lille’s comeback last weekend, netting his 50th Ligue 1 goal for Le LOSC – and a fourth in his previous five to arrive from the spot! In opposition, Moses Simon gave Nantes hope with a lead-giving goal during the reverse clash, but the Canaries backline could not hold out, keeping February 2022 as the most recent occasion in which they kept a clean sheet in any game featuring a goal from him.

⚡ Hot stat: A majority (ten) of the previous 16 H2Hs have seen at least one side fail to score.