10th and 13th are set to clash in the final Ligue 2 game of the season this weekend as Saint-Etienne meet with Valenciennes at the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium with both sides merely looking to finish the campaign strongly after poor seasons.
After dropping down from Ligue 1 following on from a dismal 2021/22, St-Etienne have now put together one of their worst seasons on record in the second tier.
Dernier entraînement ! 💚🔚 pic.twitter.com/rqBPtOmjoV— AS Saint-Étienne (@ASSEofficiel) June 1, 2023
Dernier entraînement ! 💚🔚 pic.twitter.com/rqBPtOmjoV
It is their first back in Ligue 2 since 2003/04 and they have now finished much lower in the table than they did back then with the club sitting 10th right now.
They can still finish as high as sixth in the Ligue 1 table, but they must win this game here and hope that Grenoble Foot, Paris FC, Guingamp and Sochaux all lose their final game of the season too.
This comes off the back of St-Etienne only winning 14 games this season from 37 outings.
They have also lost 12 games and drawn 11 and head into this final game with 61 goals scored and 57 let in. St-Etienne did draw 2-2 with Caen last time out after two goals within eight minutes of the first half from Ibrahima Wadji.
They did, however, also end up drawing the game because they conceded two goals in the final two minutes of the game.
St-Etienne did defeat Quevilly-Rouen just before that win and have also beaten Grenoble Foot and Guingamp in the final six matches of the season. The club have, however, also lost to Metz and Stade Laval in this time.
As for Valenciennes, they have put together an excellent run of form in the final few games of the campaign. In fact, they went unbeaten throughout all of May after drawing 3-3 with Nimes and drawing with Pau 1-1. They then went on to become the first team to win a game at the league leader's home turf, as they managed to beat Le Havre 2-0.
All this does, however, keep them down in 13th in the table and in a position where they can still finish as low as 18th in Ligue 2 this campaign. The club would need to lose this game and see Annecy, Pau, Rodez, Laval and Dijon all win their games, however.
Last time out Valenciennes won again, as the club defeated Grenoble Foot in their final home game 1-0. Forebet now predicts a draw and over 2.5 goals in the game.