In a weekend match in week 28, on Fri Mar 11th, Lille hosts Saint-Étienne at Stade Pierre-mauroy in a clash of these two extremely mismatched Ligue 1 teams. The game day is forecasted to be a cloudy and cool day, with daytime temperatures of only 9 degrees, so hopefuly the match makes up for the weather. Lille is fresh off their 4-0 shutout win against Clermont. Jonathan Bamba scored the first goal for Lille in the 3rd minute, then Jonathan David added another in the 71st minute on a feed from Renato Sanches At the end of 90 a dissapointed Clermont couldn’t manage to score, and Lille took the shutout win. Lille should be reasonably happy with their recent performance, earning 18 points in their last 10 matches, while 17th placed Saint-Étienne is fresh off their 1-0 shutout win against Metz. Denis Bouanga struck first for Saint-Étienne in the 52nd minute, and that was all the excitement the two teams could muster In the end, Metz couldn’t muster any offence and Saint-Étienne ran away with the shutout win. Saint-Étienne is looking for direction having earned 13 points in their last 10 matches.
In their last match on Sat Aug 21st, Saint-Étienne and Lille battled to a 1-1 draw. Burak Yılmaz struck first for Lille in the 38th minute, then Saidou Sow got the equalizer for Saint-Étienne in the 85th minute on a feed from Arnaud Nordin earning them at least the one point.
Both Wahbi Khazri and Denis Bouanga have been the hottest scorers for Saint-Étienne in the last five each having scored 2 goals. Lille is having problems scoring lately. Their top scorers, Xeka and Gabriel Gudmundsson each only have 1 goal in their last 5
Benjamin André and Burak Yılmaz are unavailable to play for Lille, while Saint-Étienne will be without Enzo Crivelli, Wahbi Khazri, Romain Hamouma, Eliaquim Mangala, Miguel Trauco, Yvann Macon, Yvan Neyou Noupa and Sow.