On Tuesday night, Montpellier welcome Lyon to La Mosson, with both sides playing their third Ligue 1 game of the 2020/21 season.
Tenth-place Lyon will be aiming to maintain their unbeaten to three games following a win and a draw, while Montpellier are thirteenth with three points from their opening two games.
Montpellier kicked off their campaign with 2-1 defeat to Rennes. They saw just 33% possession on the opening day and only managed to score a late consolation goal in injury time.
However, Montpellier bounced back with an impressive 3-1 victory over Nice on Saturday. Again, the team didn’t have much possession. But they racked up a whopping 20 shots (13 on target).
Gaetan Laborde gave Montpellier the lead, before Daniel Congre netted a second-half double to cap off the win.
Montpellier will be confident of avoiding defeat on Tuesday, as they have only lost one of their last 14 Ligue 1 games at La Mosson.
Not only that, but they have managed to win 11 of those 14 games and come into this clash on a three-game winning streak on home soil.
Meanwhile, Lyon’s season began with a 4-1 thrashing of Dijon. A Memphis Depay hat-trick, along with an own goal from Wesley Lautoa, saw Rudi Garcia’s men claim all three points.
Despite enjoying 55% possession and recording 20 shots last time out, Lyon were held to a goalless draw by Bordeaux in their second outing.
After making it all the way to the Champions League semi-finals just last month, Lyon have an excellent opportunity to excel domestically following PSG’s woeful start to the new campaign.
Head-to-head: Both sides have only lost one of their previous five meetings in the fixture, with three draws coming during that period.
However, Lyon have fared well on their travels against Montpellier. Rudi Garcia’s side have only lost two of their last 13 visits to La Mosson in the league.
It’s also worth pointing out that both teams have scored in 20 of the previous 25 meetings between Montpellier and Lyon. Needless to say, goals are expected again this time around.
Team news: Montpellier have no injury concerns ahead of Tuesday clash. New signing Jonas Omlin could keep his place between the sticks, despite conceding three goals in his first two appearances for the club.
Lyon have also come through the opening two rounds unscathed, so Rudi Garcia isn’t expected to change his starting XI too much for this game.
Considering the amount of draws and goals this fixture has produced in recent years, a high-scoring draw is surely on the cards here.
Forebet predicts that both teams will score over 1.5 goals. However, the points are likely to be shared.