Friday night brings us the first of this weekend’s fixtures in the French top flight and features the clash between high-flying Lens and 14th placed Troyes at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis with the hosts looking to bounce back from last weekend’s defeat.
A 2-1 defeat away from home at Lyon became Lens’s second defeat on the trot on the road following a previous 1-0 loss away at Montpellier.
Bien chaud, il garde malgré tout un arrière-goût amer... Le #CaféPiconCrème ☕ de #OLRCL est servi 👇 pic.twitter.com/2jh75sCJin— Racing Club de Lens (@RCLens) November 2, 2021
Bien chaud, il garde malgré tout un arrière-goût amer... Le #CaféPiconCrème ☕ de #OLRCL est servi 👇 pic.twitter.com/2jh75sCJin
Having lost just three of their 12 matches to date in this season’s Ligue 1 campaign, Lens will be satisfied with the way they’ve started this term.
Despite the three losses, only one has been inflicted upon Lens at home so far this season which was a disappointing 1-0 loss to Strasbourg.
That’s been the host’s only blip so far on home soil as they’ve also collected wins against Lille, Reims and Metz, winning three of their last four matches.
Indeed, Lens have lost just two of their last 15 home games in Ligue 1 and they look in good shape to add to their points tally here.
Onto Troyes and the visitors moved up into 14th place on the Ligue 1 standings thanks to a point in a 2-2 draw at home with Rennes on the weekend which also extended their unbeaten run in the French top flight to three matches overall.
Troyes had previously posted back-to-back wins against Nice and Reims in 1-0 and 2-1 victories respectively but overall results in the domestic top flight suggest that the visitors may well have their work cut out for this upcoming trip to Lens on Friday night.
The visitors have won just three of their last 15 matches overall while results away from home have been even worse; just two wins out of their previous 22 games on the road also include no fewer than 16 defeats as well.
In addition, Troyes have failed to score in nine of these last 16 games on their travels while keeping just the one clean sheet and their porous defensive record on the road may well hold the key to the outcome of this clash.
Lens have won five of their last six meetings at home against Troyes and the hosts should come out on top once again here.