Wednesday night’s hosts, Lens, will be greatly incentivised for this upcoming clash against Nantes in this midweek Ligue 1 clash as the hosts would move level on points with the top five pack of the French top flight with a win here.
It’s been a good start to this new Ligue 1 campaign for Lens who have suffered just two defeats to date, which were both actually inflicted upon them away from home in losses at Nice and Lille, while results at home have been impressive.
Five wins out of their nine matches so far this season have helped lift Lens up into 9th place and on home turf at their Stade Bollaert-Delelis, the hosts have won three of their four matches at home this term amidst an overall record of 3-1-0 9/5 which includes wins over PSG, Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne.
Lens also won the previous meeting at home against Nantes 1-0 back in May and a similar scoreline could unfold here on Wednesday night.
Onto Nantes, and it’s been tough going for the visitors so far this season as Nantes currently occupy a disappointing 14th place on the Ligue 1 ladder as they’ve struggled for consistency in the opening couple of months of this new campaign.
Nantes have registered just three wins to date this term, two of which were picked up on home turf at their Stade de la Beaujoire with victories recorded over Nimes and Brest, while picking up just the one win on their travels to date which was a 2-0 win at Lorient.
All three of these victories though were captured against teams currently occupying positions in the bottom half of Ligue 1 and the majority of the points that Nantes have picked up so far have been achieved at home.
Three of Nantes’s five away matches have resulted in defeats at Monaco 2-1, Lille 2-0 and a 2-1 loss at Nice while the bigger picture shows that Nantes have managed to record just four wins out of their last 15 matches on the road in the French top flight.
Of the two teams here, Lens appear to be the more consistent and better equipped to grab the spoils here as they look to move to the fringes of the top five.