Champions League is on their way

Wednesday 13th Feb 2019:

St. Etienne lost another game in a row, this time vs Rennes on the road (0-3) and now they sit on the 5th place of the table. A quite unpredicted was the home loss for Strasbourg vs Angers (1-2), an outcome that placed them 9th in the table. However the have just two points less than 4th-placed Monpelier. The winner of tonight's encounter will climb in the 4th place that qualifies for a Europa League place in next year's tournament

Sunday 4th Feb 2019:
Saint-Etienne vs. Strasbourg postponed after heavy snowfall.

Three consecutive games without a win in all tournaments for St. Etienne who were first defeated 1-2 vs Lyon in a competitive home game and then they registered an 1-1 away draw vs15th-placed Nantes. in the meanwhile, they were eliminated from the French Cup, after an embarrassing home loss vs Dijon (3-6). After these results, St. Etienne are now in the 4th place of the table, having 3 points less than Lyon who sit on the last Champions League qualifiers place. Their current opponent Strasbourg stands 5th, two points clear of them.

Strasbourg have an impressive performance this year and the participation in Champions League qualifiers seems quite possible for a team who were playing in the 5th division of French football in 2012! Thierry Laurey's team registered 7 wins in their last 8 games in all tournaments. Their only loss was vs Paris Saint Germain (2-0) in a game for the French Cup. Furthermore, 3 wins in an equal number of games is their record in Ligue 1 in the beginning of 2019. Their most recent one was the 1-0 vs Bordeaux, who they won again (3-2) and they qualified to the League Cup's final. J.Martin will be missing for a long time due to his injury while doubtful are L.Carole, J.Grimm and I.Saadi yet.

Although St. Etienne has shown decent quality, they are coming to this crucial clash after a negative streak. They were defeated in their two most recent games and conceded 8 goals overall. Their opponent aren't an easy one to let them make the overturn. Strasbourg are a free scoring team lately (16 goals in 8 games). Even if they concede goals, Thierry Laurey's team got their way to score more goals and collect the points. The away win which is offered in quite decent odds will be my call. I will also choose the 1-3 correct score as fun bet, which is offered in huge odds, almost 40/1.