Saint-Etienne may well have produced a collective sigh of relief when last season’s Ligue 1 campaign was brought to a halt by the lockdown, especially as the hosts had endured a seven-match stretch without a win in the French top flight leading up to the curtailment.
Indeed, Saint-Etienne had picked up just the one win from their final 12 matches of the season which had left them fourth from bottom in Ligue 1 although they still possessed a useful seven-point cushion over second from bottom outfit, Amiens.
⭐️ 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐥𝐮 abonnés https://t.co/sH7DYgyFTs🔜 #ASSERCSA : le 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲📅 Dispo dès lundi 14 septembre🕕 18h🎙️ Grégoire Brunon & Alain Blachon aux commentaires— AS Saint-Étienne (@ASSEofficiel) September 9, 2020
⭐️ 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐥𝐮 abonnés https://t.co/sH7DYgyFTs🔜 #ASSERCSA : le 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲📅 Dispo dès lundi 14 septembre🕕 18h🎙️ Grégoire Brunon & Alain Blachon aux commentaires
Nevertheless, Saint-Etienne will be desperate to produce a much better showing this time around, and having already chalked up their first win of the season with a solid 2-0 win over Lorient at their Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, the hosts will be confident that they can make it back-to-back wins when Strasbourg come to town on Saturday.
In addition, Saint-Etienne are unbeaten in each of their last three meetings at home against Strasbourg, winning 2-1 last time these two teams met at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard back in December of last year.
Strasbourg enjoyed a solid campaign last season in Ligue 1 as the visitors finished in a comfortable mid-table position of 10th place on the French top flight ladder and they’ll be keen for more of the same this season.
However, Strasbourg’s comfortable campaign was largely thanks to their positive results on home turf at their Stade de la Meinau where they suffered just three defeats out of their 13 matches played before the lockdown, while it was a different story on their travels.
The visitors lost eight of their 14 away matches last term although things did look up in the final few matches on the road as Strasbourg collected wins at Monaco and Toulouse to steady the ship.
Early back-to-back defeats this season though has handed Strasbourg the worst start possible in this season’s Ligue 1 campaign following losses against Lorient 3-1 away from home and a 2-0 loss at home to Nice.
Therefore, confidence may not be quite as high as they’d have liked heading into this upcoming clash away at Saint-Etienne.
Saint-Etienne’s win against Lorient will have been a welcome boost for the hosts and they stand a decent chance of adding to their points tally here.