The French Ligue 1 action resumes on Friday night with this upcoming bottom half clash between Strasbourg and Metz at the Stade de la Meinau with the hosts no doubt eager to return to the more familiar surroundings of their home ground following last weekend’s heavy 3-1 loss away from home at Lyon.
Previously, Strasbourg had recorded a 3-1 win of their own over Brest last time out at their Stade de la Meinau and the hosts will be keen to replicate that result here on Friday evening as they seek to pull away from the bottom three in Ligue 1.
🆕 #RCSAFCM I Pas le temps de tergiverser !🔙 Retour au travail 👊 pic.twitter.com/LnY6y8M577— Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace (@RCSA) September 13, 2021
🆕 #RCSAFCM I Pas le temps de tergiverser !🔙 Retour au travail 👊 pic.twitter.com/LnY6y8M577
Strasbourg have found league wins hard to come by in the French top flight though for some time as the hosts have managed to collect just two victories out of their last 12 matches overall, while at home, Strasbourg have won just one of their previous eight games.
That rare victory was against the aforementioned Brest but the hosts have slipped to five defeats within this sequence but they did record a 2-1 win away from home in their last meeting against Metz while two of the last five meetings have ended in draws.
Onto Metz, and the visitors dropped down into the bottom three and into the relegation play-off spot following a disappointing 2-0 defeat at home to Troyes which also extended Metz’s winless start to this new Ligue 1 campaign.
The visitors are still without a league win from their opening five matches which has seen Metz fall to defeats against Nantes and Troyes along with draws against Lille, Reims and Clermont.
However, the points picked up in the stalemates haven’t been enough to prevent them slipping into the third from bottom position.
The bigger picture shows that Metz have managed to win just once in their last 16 matches overall in Ligue 1 which came in the form of a 5-1 thrashing of relegated Dijon towards the end of last season but nine defeats and six draws suggest an away win here seems unlikely.
Five of the last six meetings between these two teams at the Stade de la Meinau have ended in stalemate and this Friday’s encounter may be no exception as Strasbourg and Metz may be happy to settle for a point apiece here.