Nantes vs Montpellier Prediction: Under 2.5 goals to be expected

When Montpellier comes to the Stade de la Beaujoire on Saturday afternoon, Nantes will begin their fight to remain in Ligue 1 without a victory in their previous 12 league games. In his first game in charge, interim manager Pierre Aristouy guided Nantes to a scoreless draw at Toulouse, while in their most recent encounter, Montpellier salvaged a late draw at Lorient.

Due to Ligue 1 having just 18 teams as of the upcoming season, the hosts are in 17th position in the rankings and at risk of being ousted. Consequently, instead of three teams, the worst four clubs will be demoted.

Nantes has lost all 12 games it has played, and last week's scoreless tie with Toulouse was their third straight game without a goal. Montpellier, who is now in 12th position, has lost both of their last two games played. 

This will be a tightly contested game with few goals. 

As the French top division gets ready for an 18-team league starting in the 2023–24 season, Nantes finds themselves with three games left one point within the Ligue 1 relegation zone, which this season consists of four teams.

The Canaries would have been safe in past campaigns since the worst three teams, Angers, Troyes, and Ajaccio, were already sent to Ligue 2, but because of the rule modification, Nantes, Auxerre, Brest, and Strasbourg are still in danger of being demoted. But given that Nantes have dropped five out of a potential 36 points since overcoming Lorient 1-0 in February, they shouldn't be surprised to be in this situation. They have lost all 12 of their league games in that time.

Pierre Aristouy was appointed Nantes' temporary manager after Antoine Kombouare was fired following back-to-back losses to Brest and Strasbourg earlier this month. However, the new manager was unable to inspire a turnaround as Nantes scrambled to a draw with Toulouse the previous weekend. The home side will need to step up their game if they are to salvage anything from Saturday's matchup as Nantes managed just one shot on goal and saw only 28% of the ball in Toulouse while the hosts made 14 attempts.

Samuel Moutoussamy and Florent Mollet will remain in the centre of the park as Nantes continues to be without Spanish midfielder Pedro Chirivella, who hasn't played since early April due to a hernia problem.

With Nicolas Pallois, Andrei Girotto, and Jean-Charles Castelletto likely to make up the back three, this will enable wing-backs Quentin Merlin and Fabien Centonze to advance. Potential starters for Nantes include Lafont, Castelletto, Girotto, Pallois, Centonze, Mollet, Moutoussamy, Merlin, Blas, Simon, and Coco.

With a bizarre 5-4 loss at Lyon, in which they led 4-1 courtesy of four goals in 15 minutes, Montpellier enters the match at the Stade de la Beaujoire with only one point from their previous two games. This includes a draw with Lorient before the bizarre loss at Lyon. Last Saturday, La Paillade actually seemed to be in trouble at home when substitute Faitout Maouassa scored an equalizer and snatched a point for the hosts, putting his team 11 points clear of the relegation zone.

Despite Montpellier's recent patchy performance - two victories, two draws, and three losses in their last seven games - the team had only lost three of their previous 13 league games.

It's also important to remember that the away side has recently had a lot of success on the road, holding Marseille to a draw at the Stade Velodrome and hammering Monaco at the Stade Louis-II before pushing Lyon to the limit. As a consequence, Montpellier may play freely from this point on until the conclusion of the season since they have guaranteed their place in the top division for another year, while Nantes will be on edge because they need to win to stay in the top division and avoid being relegated.

Lecomte, Mbiayi, Jullien, Kouyate, Sylla, Chotard, Ferri, Fayad, Nordin, Wahi, and Mavididi might be Montpellier HSC's starting lineup.

In recent games, Nantes has had a slump in form. They have lost their previous two games at home and have dropped seven games overall. Recently, they have scored four goals in six games, which is a decline in their goal-scoring performance.

Montpellier has lost to Nantes without scoring in back-to-back games. Although the home team hasn't scored in three of their past four visits to Nantes, they will attempt to take advantage of the team's poor performance.

The home team has scored in four of its past five home contests, while Montpellier has scored in six of their last eight road games. However, the form of the home team makes it difficult to envision the home side scoring. Therefore a low-scoring game is highly possible given their recent history and current form.

It is expected that Montpellier will win this game to extend Nantes' winless streak by eking out a small victory at the Stade de la Beaujoire although the match is expected to be low scoring. This will increase the pressure on the home side as Montpellier is free to pursue their goal of finishing the season on a high note.