Ligue 1's seventh and eighth-placed sides lock horns on Sunday afternoon, when Rennes take on Strasbourg at Roazhon Park.
The hosts are now on an impressive winning streak, whilst their upcoming opponents have had a more mixed time of late but did produce an impressive win in their most recent outing.
Match preview
© Reuters
Rennes' run of three consecutive Ligue 1 defeats through August and September is now a distant memory, as they have since won five of their last six games in all competitions.
The most recent four of those have all been victories, with two in the league and two in this year's inaugural Europa Conference League.
Bruno Genesio's side secured a comfortable 3-0 victory away at Metz last weekend, with Gaetan Laborde, Kamaldeen Sulemana and Martin Terrier's first-half goals effectively securing the result before the break.
Then they followed that up with a triumph in Slovenia over NS Mura, where Sehrou Guirassy's 17th-minute penalty was almost immediately cancelled out by the hosts, but that man Laborde popped up again with the all-important goal which leaves the French side top of Group G.
Genesio will be thrilled with his side's current run of form but will be desperate not to allow complacency to set in ahead of a challenging fixture.
© Reuters
Julien Stephan will come up against his former side on Sunday, and will be hoping to put his knowledge of the club to good use.
Whilst his side's confidence will not be as sky high as the hosts - after a loss and a draw before the international break - Strasbourg returned from the two-week gap in style with a thumping win over strugglers Saint-Etienne.
Maxime Le Marchand opened the scoring, before a Zaydou Youssouf own goal and a Wahbi Khazri penalty saw the teams head into half time at 2-1, but goals from Kevin Gameiro, Ludovic Ajorque and Habib Diallo saw Les Rennais produce an emphatic 5-1 final scoreline.
That result moved them from 12th up to eighth, and Stephan's men could technically go as high as third if results went their way through the weekend, such is the congestion in the Ligue 1 table.
- L
- L
- W
- D
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
- W
- W
- W
- L
- W
- W
- L
- D
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Lovro Majer was fit enough for the bench in midweek, but the summer signing is unlikely to feature in the Rennes starting XI for now.
Loic Bade was suspended for Thursday's European game but will start as part of a back four here.
Jeremy Doku remains a doubt with a knee injury, meaning Terrier and Jonas Martin are good bets to come back into the side.
Adrien Thomasson and Alexander Djiku should start in attacking midfield and on the right side of a back three respectively as they return from their suspension against Strasbourg.
Gameiro and Ajorque look set to lead the line but Diallo is also in contention for a spot up front.
Rennes possible starting lineup:
Gomis; Traore, Bade, Aguerd, Meling; Bourigeaud, Martin, Tait, Sulemana; Laborde, Terrier
Strasbourg possible starting lineup:
Sels; Le Marchand, Djiku, Nyamsi; Guilbert, Sissoko, Aholou, Lienard; Thomasson; Ajorque, Gameiro
We say: Rennes 1-1 Strasbourg
This should be a tight affair between two sides in good form. Both managers favour an attacking style of football but neither are too sloppy in defence and they may cancel each other out to some extent, so we are backing an entertaining 1-1 draw on this occasion.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Rennes win with a probability of 60.18%. A draw had a probability of 23.1% and a win for Strasbourg had a probability of 16.74%.
The most likely scoreline for a Rennes win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.52%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (11.92%) and 2-1 (9.59%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.88%), while for a Strasbourg win it was 0-1 (6.17%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 13.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Rennes in this match.
