On Saturday afternoon, Saint-Etienne and Grenoble go head-to-head at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in the opening game of their Ligue 2 2023/24 campaign.
The home team finished eighth place in the French second division table last season but will be hoping for an improvement in the new campaign.
📍 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗻. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/a7jpUhix2m— AS Saint-Étienne (@ASSEofficiel) August 2, 2023
📍 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗻. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/a7jpUhix2m
Laurent Battles’ team has enjoyed a promising pre-season campaign, winning three of their four games while scoring at least two goals in all three of the matches.
In fact, the home team has now scored at least two goals in six of their previous seven games in all competitions dating back to last season.
Considering their finishing position last season, it's unsurprising that Saint-Etienne finished last season's Ligue 2 campaign with an inconsistent run.
However, they were strong on home soil, as they won seven of their previous nine league games.
The visitors finished last season just two points below the home side in the Ligue 2 standings.
However, in contrast to their hosts, Grenoble finished last season in poor league form, as they failed to win any of their previous five matches in the French second tier while suffering four defeats in the run.
The fact that the visitors failed to score in five of their last eight league matches did little to aid their cause in Ligue 2.
Their recent league matches have been low-scoring, with under 2.5 goals scored in eight of their last nine outings in the French second tier.
Grenoble has a poor away record of late in Ligue 2, as they have lost their last four league matches in the French top flight.
Forebet predicts that Saint-Etienne will record a victory in a low-scoring encounter to kick off their Ligue 2 campaign positively.