There’s further action from the French second tier in Ligue 2 on Wednesday night with newly-promoted Bastia playing host to early strugglers, Nancy, at the Stade Armand-Césari, with a precious three points up for grabs for both teams.
Absents lors des deux premières journées de championnat, Saliou Ciss et Abdelhamid El Kaoutari ont repris l’entraînement avec le groupe #ASNL.👉 @ThomasBasila99 se contente pour le moment de séances spécifiques. pic.twitter.com/n4qQWAefTO— AS Nancy-Lorraine (@asnlofficiel) August 6, 2021
Absents lors des deux premières journées de championnat, Saliou Ciss et Abdelhamid El Kaoutari ont repris l’entraînement avec le groupe #ASNL.👉 @ThomasBasila99 se contente pour le moment de séances spécifiques. pic.twitter.com/n4qQWAefTO
This will be only Bastia’s second fixture in this new Ligue 2 season following a point in a 1-1 draw with Nimes on the opening day of the season but nevertheless, this result helped extend Bastia’s unbeaten run on home turf at their Stade Armand-Césari to an impressive 21 matches in the French second tier.
Overall, Bastia have suffered just two defeats out of their last 19 home games in all competitions, a solid sequence of results which also include 12 wins.
It was this sort of form which helped Bastia not only win last season’s National title but also gain them automatic promotion to this season’s Ligue 2.
Bastia have retained the services of last season’s joint-leading goal scorer, Robic, who netted 12 times last season and the hosts have been unbeaten in their last three meetings at home against Nancy.
Onto Nancy then, and the visitors finished last season in 8th place but ended up a significant 17 points adrift of Paris FC and the top five pack in Ligue 2 at the end of the last campaign, winning just one of their final eight matches of last term.
This slump in form has seemingly spilled over into this new season as well for Nancy who currently sit bottom of the division having suffered back-to-back defeats against Pau 2-1 away from home and a worrying 4-0 thrashing at home by Toulouse in their opening two games of this new term.
This now makes it just one win from their last 10 matches for Nancy who have some way to go if they’re to emulate last season’s 8th place finish in the French second tier, while wins on the road continue to be difficult to come by for the visitors.
The bigger picture shows that Nancy have gained a total of just five wins out of their last 37 matches on the road at this level, so this upcoming fixture at Bastia may also represent another tough night at the office for the visitors.