Lille vs Metz
France Ligue 1
Date: Saturday 9th November 2019
Kick off at 19:00 UK/ 20:00 CET
Venue: Stade Pierre-Mauroy (Lille)
Lille, after a good start to the season which saw them riding high in fifth place in Ligue 1, welcome struggling Metz to Stade Pierre-Mauroy on Saturday. Metx second down France's top level, but there is no party that took the form of stars in this weekend's games. Both sides have taken just one win and a draw from their last five matches in all competitions and need a boost to their existing campaigns.
Lille were soundly beaten 4-1 at Valencia in Tuesday night's Champions League match, conceding four goals in the last 24 minutes of the match after taking a 25-minute lead when Victor James Osimhen scored the opener. Last Saturday they left Marseille with a 2-1 league defeat by Bakary this Soumaoro 83-minute strike proved only a consolation. They have beaten Bordeaux at home the previous weekend when Benjamin Andre scored in the first half and Yusuf Yazici added a penalty before Loic Remy wrapped up a 3-0 win in the second round.
And despite their struggles on the road, Lille home form is rock solid. In six games at home this season they have won five and drawn one as 16 of their 18 league points have come on Pierre-Mauroy. It is a form of home that makes Lille bet to win this weekend. Add that they are doing the double over their opponents the last time they met in the league two seasons ago and looks more solid bet. Then factor in this Metz and appalling away form home team become even safer proposition.
Metz has failed to score in four of their six away matches and their 1-1 draw at Strasbourg and a 1-0 away win at St Etienne has provided just four points from a possible 25 on their travels.
Looking goalscorer bets and there are two obvious candidates to Lille; s Victor James Osimhen after bagging seven goals this season and Metz has seen eight of the 11 goals this season came courtesy of Habibou Diallo. On the basis that Lille is playing to win following that Osimhen is the best bet to add to his tally.
Both sides tend to serve up a lot of goals when they have met with 19 goals coming in their last six meetings, but with Metz struggled to find the net on their travels you will depend on the host to do the job.
Overall it is difficult to make a case for Metz to do anything but help to extend an impressive home run Lille, currently the second-best home record in Ligue 1.
Lille vs Metz: Predictions
Lille clearly the better team and should get the win here. We expect them to be run Metz who have a very poor away from home. Even if Lille will be a bit of a tired they have better players and will take control of the speed so that Metz will have to defend for much of the game and try and counter. We will take Lille win and also score a few goals and with a small bet we will return the correct value.
