The French Ligue 1 season may have been disbanded due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but the Coupe de France final will go ahead on Friday night after a four-month hiatus with this season’s unofficial Ligue 1 title-winners, PSG, taking on Saint-Etienne at the Stade de France.
Although there’s been no official action to speak of on the domestic front in France, PSG have been involved in recent club friendlies against Le Havre and Celtic, and there doesn’t appear to be any rust in the PSG camp as they brushed their opponents aside by recording resounding 9-0 and 4-0 victories respectively.
PSG’s passage to the domestic cup final has been similarly comprehensive as the French champions have breezed their way through the five qualifying rounds to take their place in the cup final by brushing aside Linas-Montlhery 6-0, Lorient 1-0, Pau 2-0, Dijon 6-1 and a 5-1 thrashing of Lyon, all of which have been away from home.
PSG have notched a total of 20 goals in the process and they also hold an impressive record against Saint-Etienne.
They’ve won the last four encounters on the trot and have scored a total of 15 goals and conceded just 1 in reply.
This therefore looks a daunting task ahead of Saint-Etienne despite this being in effect a ‘two-horse race’ for the right to lift the Coupe de France trophy, but Saint-Etienne have also been in action during the lockdown as they’ve secured wins against Rumilly Vallieres 4-1, Nice 4-1 and a 4-0 rout of Belgian club, Sporting Charleroi.
Saint-Etienne have also enjoyed a relatively comfortable passage through to the Coupe de France final having seen off Bastia-Borgo 3-0, Paris FC 3-2, Monaco 1-0 and Epinal 2-1 all away from home before recording a 2-1 home win against Rennes in the semi-final.
However, results away from home in all competitions prior to the suspension of the domestic calendar saw Saint-Etienne lose four of their five matches before the lockdown with defeats incurred against Metz 3-1, Montpellier 1-0, Brest 3-2 and Lyon 2-0 while their solitary win during this period was the Coupe de France win against National 2 outfit, Epinal.
📷 #PSGfamily ❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/9zyPoRll2a— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) July 22, 2020
📷 #PSGfamily ❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/9zyPoRll2a
PSG therefore look set to collect further silverware here and a few goals could unfold here as a consequence too, with a PSG win and Over 3.5 goals scored.