Football – France – Ligue 1
Saturday 27th September 2014 – Kickoff: 2000hrs
Following their midweek 0-1 defeat away at Nice, Lille return to their home ground for tonight’s clash against Bastia, and they’ll no doubt be looking to extend their unbeaten start at home in Ligue 1.
Wins against Lorient and Nantes both by 2-0 margins, along with points against top half teams Metz and Montpellier means that Lille have started in solid fashion at home where they currently hold a record of 2-2-0 4/0.
In addition, the hosts have kept four clean sheets on the trot which will have pleased manager Girard, and in fact, Lille have kept ten clean sheets from their last twelve home matches which should set them up nicely for today’s fixture against Bastia.
Onto the visitors then, and despite sitting fifth from bottom in Ligue 1, Bastia have lost just twice this season but both have been away at PSG 0-2 and Metz 1-3 respectively. They’ve been involved in four draws so far this season which has meant that they’ve been unable to break away from the bottom end of the division.
Their away record has been less solid though as they’ve registered just one win from their last nine on the road (and that was away at Montpellier towards the end of last season), while this term they’ve lost to PSG and Metz and drawn with Bordeaux.
Historically though, Bastia tend not to travel too well as one clean sheet from their last 21 away outings testifies, and they could find goalscoring a tough prospect against Lille’s solid defence this afternoon.
This encounter looks like it could be a low-scoring affair, but I’ll give the nod to the hosts here as I reckon they can just do enough to grab all three points in perhaps a 1-0 win.
Pick: Lille straight win @ 1.62 bet365
