Lille vs Nantes 26/09/20

26 September 2020

Lille will be looking to post a fifth consecutive Ligue 1 triumph over Nantes when the two clubs meet at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy. Curiously, each of their previous wins has come via a single-goal margin.

The hosts enter Matchday 5 as one of just three teams yet to taste defeat after the opening four rounds of the Ligue 1 fixtures (W2, D2). Lille’s top-flight matches in the early stage of the season have been notably tight, as all have featured under 2.5 goals, with both of their wins coming via the identical 1-0 scoreline. The ‘clean-sheet’ theme remains quite significant, given six of Lille’s seven home results (wins/losses) this calendar year have seen the winner on the day shut out the loser (W5, L2). In turn, just two of their previous ten Ligue 1 H2H meetings held at this venue have seen both teams on the scoresheet, with ‘Les Dogues’ suffering only one loss during that sequence (W7, D2, L1).

As for the visitors, they’ve endured a mixed start to the new league campaign (W1, D2, L1), with their last three Ligue 1 games seeing over 2.5 goals and both teams on the scoresheet. Delivering action from the get-go, each of those three matches has seen the opening goal come inside the opening 11 minutes of play. But, ‘Les Canaris’ have failed to impress on the road in 2020, picking up only two wins from seven top-flight trips since the turn of the year (D2, L3). Unfortunately for the traveling fans, Nantes developed a habit of falling behind without recovering, as they lost five of six Ligue 1 trips in which they conceded the opener back in 2019/20 (D1).