19.10.2024 | 
Lens is going to St. Etienne in hope that they will finally get back to winning track after failing to do so in the last five games. The home team needs every point to avoid being the relegation zone, and they are doing a great job so far.
St. Etienne and Lens meet on 19.10.2024, in their first meeting in two years. The game takes place at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint-Etienne.
| St. Etienne | Saturday, 19.10.2024, 13:00 | Lens |
| 1 | x | 2 |
| 5,55 | 3,88 | 1,68 |
St. Etienne – Lens: Initial situation
Lens has been among the top teams in Ligue 1 for years but are currently struggling to beat anybody in the league. They have the longest active winless streak in the league which put some pressure on the squad. It seems like the game against St. Etienne comes in the right time for Lens, but they need to get out on the pitch and earn the victory.
St. Etienne Stats & Form
St. Etienne is back in the best French league after a while and they have a decent start. The Greens are currently 13th in the standings and have the second-worst goal differential of -12. They are quite good at home winning two of the three games so far at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard. Their second win of the season came in the last matchday when they beat another team that returned to Ligue 1 this season, Auxerre by 3-1. Zuriko Davitashvili, who was brought in from Bordeaux, was the hero of the Green scoring a hat-trick in that game.
Lens Stats & Form
Lens had a great start of the season winning the first couple of games against Angers and Brest, and given the fact that they beat Leicester and Panathinaikos in the Conference League in those couple of weeks, it seemed like they are about to have a season to remember. For some reason, their level went down and the Blood and Gold have not won ever since. They are on a streak of five consecutive draws and are coming off a 2-2 draw in Strasbourg. Lens has kept a clean sheet for the majority of their game and has the lowest goal average per game in the Ligue 1 of 1.57.
St. Etienne – Lens: Head to Head
Lens has won 4 of the last 10 head-to-head games, St. Etienne won three and three games ended in a tie. Lens has been the better team recently winning 3 of the last 4 games including their last matchup in the 2022-23 season. The last three games between these two teams went over 2.5 goals in total and in 4 of their last 6 both teams scored.
St. Etienne – Lens: Odds
Lens is a slight favorite going into this one with the odds of 1,68. The odds for St. Etienne’s win are 5,55 while the draw is set at 3,88. The total goal line is set at 2.5 with both ways at 1,93.
Top 3 Betting Odds
| St. Etienne – Lens Betting Tip | Odds |
| Lens to win | 1,68 |
| Under 2.5 goals | 1,93 |
| First half: Lens | 2,19 |
Betting tip and prediction: St. Etienne – Lens (19.10.2024)
St. Etienne barely made it to Ligue 1, finishing in third place in the second tier and surviving a playoff matchup against Metz. They already won a pair of games this season, which can be seen as success knowing the budget of the team. Manager Olivier Dall’Oglio is a fan favorite since he took the team to the elite in his first season on St. Etienne’s bench, but he will have a tough time keeping them there unless the team management makes some moves in the winter transfer window. St. Etienne’s biggest vulnerability is the defensive line, as they are second to last in allowed goals this season in Ligue 1. Things will get even more difficult against Lens as two experienced defenders, Pierre Cornud and Yvann Macon, will be sidelined with injuries. The visiting team has even bigger problems, as there are four players who will most likely miss this game. Uruguayan striker Martin Satriano has been out for a while, and Hamzat Ojediranm, Neil El Aynaoui and Jonathan Gradit join him on the injury list. Lens is in a very specific situation as they are going into this one after five consecutive draws, which is the longest active winless streak in Ligue 1 at the moment. If that was St. Etienne, that would be considered a success, but Lens has way bigger ambitions and will need to step up. Manager Will Still was brought in from Reims after growing that team into a respectable squad. However, he still needs some room to implement his playing style with the current squad, and this game may be the turning point of the season. Being sixth in the league is still a good situation for the visitors, but unless they start winning, the gap between them and the top four teams will grow. Lens is just too good of a team and will respond when needed and win this game quite easily.