The top three teams in Ligue 1 qualify for the Champions League next season. There are only three places up for grabs, with the fourth place team going into the Europa League. With first and second place already taken care of, that leaves either Lyon or St Etienne to finish third.
However, St Etienne are 4 points adrift of third place Lyon and need to win their match and hope Lyon drop points to have any chance. On Saturday, St Etienne host Nice in a game they need to win.
St Etienne were going along nicely in their pursuit of Champions League football next season and enjoyed a run of six wins and one draw in seven league games. That changed last weekend when they tasted a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Montpellier. The defeat has left third place out of their hands.
Home form has been inconsistent recently and trends show St Etienne have won four and lost four of their last eight Ligue 1 matches. Prior to the 1-0 loss to Montpellier, St Etienne won three home games in succession, defeating Nimes, Bordeaux and Toulouse.
They kept two clean sheets in those three wins but they have been the exception to the norm. St Etienne have kept just two clean sheets in their last nine home matches and may need to score a couple of goals to win this game.
Nice find themselves in seventh place in Ligue 1 and cannot qualify for European football next season. The best they can hope for is to finish above Marseille in sixth place but there is also the danger they could drop a couple of places in the final two weeks of the season.
Trends show Nice have lost just one of their last eight Ligue 1 games. They have picked up three wins and four draws across those eight matches with a good point in a 1-1 draw at Paris Saint-Germain included in that run of results.
However, despite drawing their last two away games, overall away form has been poor and Nice have won only one of their last eleven away league matches. They have lost four of the last seven and scoring goals has been a big issue.
In fact, Nice have scored just 2 goals in their last seven away Ligue 1 games.
Team news and St Etienne are without Remy Cabella who is suspended. Neven Subotic, Romain Hamouma, Lois Diony, Gabriel Silva and Kevin Monnet-Paquet are all injured and will miss out.
Nice travel without Dante and Christophe Herelle who are suspended. They have several players who could miss the game due to injury including Ignatius Ganago, Remi Walter, Wylan Cyprien and Mohamed Lamine Diaby.
St Etienne must win this game and they will hope Nice’s poor run in-front of goal will continue. It could be tight but the hosts may come out on top with a narrow victory and rare clean sheet.