Another attractive fixture in this weekend’s Ligue 1 schedule sees 2nd placed Lille play host to 4th placed Monaco at their Stade Pierre-Mauroy with the hosts hoping that PSG slip up away at Montpellier, thus leaving the way clear for Lille to take over at the top.
First of all though, Lille need to dispose of Sunday’s visitors, Monaco, but having suffered just one defeat throughout this season to date in all competitions, Lille also look a very decent prospect of taking something out of this clash.
Lille’s one slip-up came in the shape of a 3-2 defeat away from home at Brest in the league but the hosts have produced some solid results and on the whole have been pretty consistent as they’ve not only joined PSG at the top of Ligue 1 but are also sitting on top of Group H in the Europa League too.
Returning to the domestic scene and Lille have been a hard team to beat so far this season although in recent weeks, the hosts have managed just one win from their last five matches and have drawn three of these, but four wins out of six is not a bad return either at home.
Monaco have made a promising start to the new Ligue 1 campaign as the visitors occupy 4th place and are level on 23 points apiece with their Sunday’s hosts, Lille, prior to this mouthwatering spectacle at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
The visitors bring an impressive four-match winning streak into this Sunday lunchtime duel having disposed of Bordeaux, Nice, PSG and Nimes in what has been an excellent run of wins in the French top flight and one which has thrust them to within reach of 1st place.
There’s obviously still a long way to go in this season’s Ligue 1 campaign but Monaco’s encouraging start will have been a welcome boost as the club attempts to return to its former glories.
However, it should be pointed out that the majority of Monaco’s success this season has been achieved on home turf at their Stade Louis II where they’ve won five and drawn two to date, while on the road they’ve won two and lost three.
With both clubs in pretty good shape though overall, they could well cancel each other out and have to settle for a share of the points here.