Ligue 1 is set to return this week as 10th and seventh meet in the French top flight on Wednesday as Lille and Clermont Foot clash at the Gabriel Montpied Stadium following on from a winless December for Clermont Foot from three games during the World Cup.
During the break for the World Cup, both sides were relatively active. Clermont met with La Liga side Valencia on December 3rd in a club friendly that saw the club go 3-0 down at one stage in the game and lose 4-2 in what was a pretty dismal performance from the Ligue 1 side.
📅 #PlanningRetour à la compétition cette semaine avec la #CelebrationWeek 👊🔴🔵🏠🆚 @losclive, ce mercredi à 19h00✈️🆚 @OL, ce dimanche à 17h00— Clermont Foot 63 (@ClermontFoot) December 26, 2022
📅 #PlanningRetour à la compétition cette semaine avec la #CelebrationWeek 👊🔴🔵🏠🆚 @losclive, ce mercredi à 19h00✈️🆚 @OL, ce dimanche à 17h00
A clash with another La Liga side came soon after with Valladolid, as they lost 1-0 before then losing 1-0 to Sochaux just this time last week.
It does mean their preparation for this game could not have gone much worse for Clermont as they failed to win a single game. On the other hand, they were quite active and ended up getting a lot of players back up to full fitness in the process.
Now, up against Lille, Clermont have a chance to rocket themselves further up the Ligue 1 table with them already sitting in the top half after a decent end to things before the World Cup break.
It has been a great season for Pascal Gastien’s side, as they are only two points behind eighth-placed Lyon. However, the club are seven points behind Lille in sixth.
Should Gastien’s men get all three points here, it would probably be their biggest statement in the league so far in 2022/23. As for Lille, they have 26 points up in seventh and they were much better during the World Cup break than Clermont.
The champions from two seasons ago avoided defeat in all five matches they played, as Lille were one of the busiest teams on the continent.
Quite incredibly, Lille defeated the unbeaten Serie A side Napoli 4-1, after beating Valladolid 2-0 and Cambuur 2-0. They also beat Club Brugge 1-0 and drew 2-2 with Oostende, which was the only time they didn’t win a game from the five in December.
This should be a routine victory for Lille. The club are heading into this one in a much better place from Clermont and some of their players will be keen to move on from a poor World Cup. Forebet predicts a win for Lille and for the game to see under 2.5 goals.