H2H: St Etienne vs OGC Nice – Prediction (Ligue 1

Preview and Teams Comparison.

St Étienne forward Romain Hamouma has three goals from four L1 starts this season, whilst netting in his last two appearances versus Nice. Nice defender Dante has two L1 goals, which makes this his best league goal-scoring campaign since 2013/14 already. In fact, he has either scored or received a yellow card in 66.67% of his appearances this season. Nice are currently one of just eight L1 clubs yet to score in the opening 15 minutes of play.

St Etienne Insights.

AS Saint-Étienne have suffered consecutive Ligue 1 (L1) defeats ‘to-nil’ after trailing at half-time. They did, however, open the season with three straight wins (all ‘to nil’), whilst they have scored a goal in each half in 50% of their league contests. They are ranked joint-lowest in the league for yellow-cards (nine). ‘Les Verts’ have noticeably failed to score in each of their last eight L1 home losses, and worse still, only Toulouse had an inferior first-half L1 home record last season. Additionally, head coach Claude Puel’s L1 record since taking charge of St Étienne reads: W9, D5, L12 – the second-worst record in the club’s managerial history in that same timeframe.

Nice Insights.

OGC Nice recently ended a three-match winless streak (D1, L2) with a 2-1 home victory over Nantes. That made it six straight L1 wins to see them score exactly two goals, whilst they’re the only team in L1 yet to either score or concede beyond the 75th minute. The visitors from the Riviera have only won two of their last 14 L1 away fixtures (W2, D5, L7). Another concern is that they have lost on their previous three visits to Stade Geoffroy-Guichard. They’ve also conceded inside the first 30 minutes in seven of their previous ten L1 away defeats.