French Ligue 1 resumes this weekend as Auxerre welcome Lorient to Stade de l’Abbé-Deschamps for the eight round game of the 2022/23 Ligue 1 season.
Venue: Stade de l’Abbé-Deschamps (Auxerre)
Key Statistics
Auxerre have conceded first before the half-hour mark in their last three league games.
The hosts have conceded nine goals in their last three games.
Four of Auxerre’s seven Ligue 1 matches this campaign have seen the opening goal scored within ten minutes.
Lorient have lost just one Ligue 1 game this season (W5, D1).
The visitors are unbeaten in their last three away visits to newly promoted sides (W2, D1).
They have scored 14 times in the league this season. Only five teams have managed more goals.
Head to head
Lorient have managed just two wins over Auxerre in their last ten head-to-heads. The hosts have three wins in that period.
Latest performances in all competitions
Auxerre: L-L-L-W-W
Lorient: W-W-W-L-W
Auxerre
Auxerre will look to get back to winning ways when they host high-flying Lorient this Friday.
The hosts opened their league account this season with two wins and a draw (L1) from their first four games of the campaign. The start was their best four-game start to a Ligue 1 campaign since 2005/06.
However, they have followed up that decent start with three consecutive league losses, with the last of those losses coming in a 5-0 away loss to Rennes last time out.
That 5-0 defeat at Rennes last weekend was the hosts’ heaviest top-flight loss since February 2010. However, coach Jean-Marc Furlan was seeing the positive side in the defeat stating that he was “not angry” given “the budget gap between the two sides”.
A major part of the blame for their poor form recently can certainly be pinned on their slow starts, as all four of their Ligue 1 losses saw them concede first before the half-hour mark.
While Rennes will be considered a big team, the same cannot be said of Lorient – a side with nearly half Rennes’ budget. And so, AJA can come into this game expecting to get a positive result.
Given that they have not lost a single H2H at the Stade Abbé Deschamps against Lorient (W5, D5), they will be desperate to keep that unbeaten run going.
Possible Auxerre starting line-up
Benoit Costil; Paul Joly, Jubal, Alexandre Coeff, Gideon Mensah; Birama Toure, Hamza Sakhi, Lassine Sinayoko, Rayan Raveloson, Mathias Autret; Mbaye Niang.
Injured: Nuno de Costa, Julian Jeanvier, Gaetan Charbonnier, Theo Pellenard
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Lorient
Meanwhile, Lorient will look to make it four wins in four league games when they travel to Auxerre on Friday.
The visitors have been one of the main surprise packages of Ligue 1 this season, with five wins (D1, L1) from seven league games seeing them seated in fourth place, just three points behind Paris Saint-Germain.
The upturn in their fortunes have been facilitated by the arrival of coach Régis Le Bris this summer. The Brittany-born coach has worked wonders so far at Lorient and is overseeing Lorient’s best start ever to a new top-flight campaign.
The 46-year-old who is the second youngest coach in the league described their latest win, which was a 3-2 home victory against Nantes as an “exceptional moment”. But he also has stated that it is not the time to “get carried away” even though his side are on the verge of winning four top-flight games in a row for the first time since December 2013.
Given Lorient’s current three-game unbeaten run away to newly-promoted sides in the top-flight (W2, D1), they look primed to achieve that feat.
Possible Lorient starting line-up
Mvogo; Gédéon Kalulu, Montassar Talbi, Julien Laporte, Vincent Le Goff; Bonke Innocent, Laurent Abergel, Enzo Le Fée; Stephane Diarra, Terem Moffi, Dango Ouattara
Injured: Igor Silva, Quentin Boisgard
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Prediction
Auxerre 1-3 Lorient
