Clermont will be looking to make it back-to-back wins in Ligue 1 when they welcome Angers to Stade Gabriel Montpied on Sunday in a huge relegation clash.
The hosts finally ended their winless streak with a dramatic late victory in midweek, whilst the visitors continued their poor form with another defeat, as their slide towards the bottom continues.
Match preview
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With five defeats and two draws from their previous seven outings, Clermont looked certain for a relegation playoff spot at best ahead of their trip to Troyes on Wednesday evening.
However, despite being dominated for the majority of the game by their hosts, Mohamed Bayo popped up with a crucial winner in the 88th minute, in what turned out to be their only effort on goal across the entire second half.
The late goal from the striker was just one small piece of the drama at the Stade de l'Aube too, with Alidu Seidu being shown a second yellow card midway through the second 45 for Clermont, and Mama Balde being given his marching order five minutes from time for the hosts, before a late VAR check denied Troyes a penalty in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
Pascal Gastien and his side will not be too concerned by their poor display though, with all three points proving far more important than performances at this stage of the campaign.
After dropping into the relegation playoff spot of 18th recently, Wednesday's victory saw Clermont leapfrog Saint-Etienne into 17th place, but with just one point keeping them there at this stage, and with only four separating them from Bordeaux inside the automatic relegation zone, Gastien's men are nowhere near safe just yet.
Just a fourth home win of the season, and a first since January, would be perfect at this stage, and after defeating Angers 1-0 in the reverse fixture back in December, Sunday's hosts can finally head into a game with some confidence in possession.
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Meanwhile, the visitors' poor form continued in midweek, albeit against champions-elect Paris Saint-Germain.
First-half goals from Kylian Mbappe and Sergio Ramos all but killed the affair despite a fairly bright start from Gerald Baticle's men, with a second-half goal from Marquinhos eventually condemning Sunday's visitors to a 3-0 defeat.
Although Le SCO were not expected to get anything from Wednesday's fixture, the loss extended their struggles of late to just one win from their last 12 outings, nine of which have ended in defeat.
Therefore, the excellent start to the season, when Angers were beaten just once from their opening nine fixtures, is now well in the past, and their slump in form over the past six months has edged them closer and closer to the wrong end of the table.
With a four-place, and three-point, advantage over Saint-Etienne in the relegation playoff spot, their survival goal remains firmly in their control, but with a daunting trip to Monaco to follow next week, Angers could well find themselves scrapping for their lives in the coming weeks should they not manage to pick up a positive result against Clermont on Sunday.
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Team News
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Following his red card on Wednesday, Seidu will serve the first of a two-match ban in Sunday's huge clash, with Akim Zedadka set to return to the side in his place at right-back.
The experienced Johan Gastien will be available once again following his midweek suspension though, and the central midfielder should immediately come back in to the starting lineup.
Lucas Da Cunha and Jim Allevinah could make way for Gastien and Jodel Dossou, with Saif-Eddine Khaoui likely to move into a forward role as a result of the return of Gastien in midfield.
Jason Berthomier and Cedric Hountondji remain sidelined through injury, whilst Vital N'Simba, Elba Rashani and Pierre-Yves Hamel are also doubts for the hosts.
As for the visitors, Sofiane Boufal, Stephane Bahoken and Mathias Pereira Lage are all ruled out through various injuries, with the former lasting just 14 minutes against PSG on Wednesday.
Jimmy Cabot is also labelled as a doubt for Angers, with the winger missing the last couple of months due to a sprained ankle.
The absences of Boufal and Bahoken mean that Mohamed-Ali Cho and Casimir Ninga appear to be the only forward options for Baticle to choose from in his 3-5-2 setup, with the duo netting just two goals between them all season so far.
Clermont possible starting lineup:
Djoco; Zedadka, Billong, Ogier, Mendy; Samed, Magnin, Gastien; Khaoui, Bayo, Dossou
Angers possible starting lineup:
Mandrea; Ebosse, Traore, Thomas; Bamba, Mendy, Bentaleb, Fulgini, Doumbia; Cho, Ninga
We say: Clermont 1-0 Angers
If Clermont can pick up from where they left off on Wednesday, we can see them starting brightly here and eventually grinding out a narrow victory.
It is likely to be an encounter lacking in huge amounts of quality from two poor sides, but with Angers remaining in freefall, we can see them being edged out here to push them further towards the drop in this huge relegation battle.
Top tip
Matthew Tranter
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Clermont win with a probability of 44.28%. A win for Angers had a probability of 30.43% and a draw had a probability of 25.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Clermont win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.87%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.1%) and 2-0 (7.49%). The likeliest Angers win was 0-1 (7.9%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.99%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 5.5% likelihood.
