Lens vs Angers: The Blood And Gold Performs Better At Home

Over the past 11 years, Lance has hosted Angers 4 times and has never won. Both teams are in the top 6 of Ligue 1, but the hosts are much fancied. Will the Blood And Gold manage to earn the significant 3 points?

Recently, Lens won and lost alternately. Unfortunately, the unsuccessful matches prevailed: the team scored only 6 points in 5 rounds. Nevertheless, the Blood And Gold occupies fourth place in the table, two points behind the second position. Lens freshly plays offense football and at the same time acts cautiously in defense. Eighteen conceded goals are far from the best overall performance, but according to the xG (expected goals), the team is 4th, trailing only Nice, Lille, and PSG. It is difficult to single out a leader in the Lance squad: three players with four goals are the club’s top goalscorers in the Championship at once. One of them, Arnaud Kalimuendo, will not join the upcoming match Angers due to suspension. Also, injured Deiver Machado and Wesley Saïd are on the sidelines.

In the last round of Ligue 1, footballers under the head coach Franck Haise beat Brest at an away game (0:4). By the 33rd minute, Lens had missed 3 goals, although the situation could have been reversed. At a minimum, the Blood And Gold were obliged to change the course of the match and keep the intrigue, but Ignatius Ganago did not shoot two goals in perfect conditions and could not outplay goalkeeper Przemysław Frankowski (0:1). For the rest of the game, any resistance lost its point. In the 74th minute after the sending-off of Kalimuendo sending-off, Lens finally capitulated.

Angers have won only twice within the last 10 Ligue 1 matches, but they still occupy a pretty high standings position - sixth place, five points behind the second line. Above all, the Black and Whites defend correctly. That is how in 14 rounds, they secured five draws. At the same time, the team’s prime goalkeeper, Paul Bernardoni, is in the treatment room, and the injured Billal Brahimi came off the bench as a substitute generally. Abdoulaye Bamba and Zinédine Ould Khaled have not played this season, and they will not join the match against Lens either.

Last week, Gérald Baticle’s wards hosted Lorient at home and became stronger with a score of 1:0. Angers had eight efforts on goal but managed to shoot only once during penalty spot. Nevertheless, four minutes before the game-winner, the Black and Whites could have scored: Azzedine Ounahi missed from the prime scoring area. Angers did not make any serious mistakes in defense, so a close win is quite a fair outcome of the meeting.

Over the past seven years, the teams have played together only twice, and Angers has won once. In the last meeting, Lens was defeated with a two-goal difference by the tenth minute, but the team reduced the turn game to a draw — 2:2. The Blood And Gold did not show the vivid performance, while Angers could double the score again: Sofiane Boufal did not convert chances.

Lens did not deserve a crushing defeat in the last round, and the chances created would have been enough for 2-3 goals. In general, the team defends well during the season, and the matchup with Brest looks like a local failure. Yes, the absence of Kalimuendo is quite a severe loss, but the return of Florian Sotoca after disqualification should compensate. Angers is pretty mundane in attack, and the recent fight with Lorient does not stand out from the general row. I propose to bet on the following outcomes:

• W1 for 1.70
• Total Under (2.5) for 1.86
• Win 1 to Nil for 2.875