Angers enjoyed a solid, if unspectacular, campaign in last season’s Ligue 1 as Sunday’s hosts finished in a comfortable mid-table position of 11th place and they’ll be keen to repeat again this term as another season of consolidation beckons.
The hosts have another chance to redeem themselves this Sunday when they play host to Reims following their disappointing 2-0 defeat at home to Bordeaux last time out in Ligue 1 at their Stade Raymond-Kopa where they lost on just four occasions throughout last season’s campaign.
Angers finished last season with a flourish as they registered three wins on the trot with victories gained over Montpellier, Brest and Nantes, but although they picked up where they left off in this season’s opener against Dijon, winning 1-0 away from home, Angers suffered defeat to Bordeaux in their subsequent fixture.
That’s now just two wins out of their last eight matches on home turf for Angers and although they were handed a heavy 4-1 defeat by Reims last time out at the Stade Raymond-Kopa, four of the preceding five meetings ended in draws.
If Angers enjoyed a solid season, then Sunday’s visitors, Reims, enjoyed a stellar season by comparison as they achieved a 6th place finish in Ligue 1 but were still eight points shy of 4th placed Lille when the French domestic top flight season was brought to a halt.
Nevertheless, it was a successful campaign for Reims whose success was built upon making their Stade Auguste-Delaune II a fortress as they suffered just two defeats at home all season - but results away from home were less convincing.
Although Reims lost just one of their final seven matches of last term, which came in the shape of a heavy 3-0 loss away at Strasbourg, this perhaps masked the problems they were having on their travels as the visitors finished with just one win out of their last six matches on the road, which included three draws.
Reims have also yet to get off the mark in terms of gaining their first win of this new Ligue 1 season as they’ve picked up just one point from their opening two matches, thanks to a creditable 2-2 draw away from home at Monaco, but they too suffered defeat last time out with a 1-0 loss at home to Lille.
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The draw has featured prominently in previous exchanges between these two sides and Sunday could see another stalemate unfold at the Stade Raymond-Kopa.