French Ligue 1 Friday tips, odds & betting previews

Strasbourg v Lille

BT Sport ESPN, 7.45pm Friday

Lille failed to break down Montpellier on Sunday but they remain in the driving seat in the race for second place in Ligue 1 and they can keep Lyon behind them by beating Strasbourg.

Christophe Galtier's team have won their last five away matches in all competitions and face opponents who are winless in three games and who have conceded twice in each of their last two home matches.

Recommendation
Lille
1pt 8-5 Betway

Key stat
Lille are unbeaten in six Ligue 1 matches.

Bet on this game at Soccerbase.com

Dijon v Saint-Etienne

6pm

Among the most eye-catching results in France this season was Dijon’s 6-3 thumping of Saint-Etienne in the French Cup, but the Reds have been unable to translate results like that to their league campaign.

Dijon bolstered their hopes of staving off relegation when they hired former PSG and Guingamp manager Antoine Kombouare at the start of the year, but they have found results hard to come by.

Since beating ten-man Monaco last month, Dijon have lost three successive league games, failing to find the net against Angers or Nimes, and they have a challenging set of fixtures on the horizon.

They face PSG in the French Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday before meeting the table-toppers and Lille in the league.

But first they tackle a St-Etienne outfit who have themselves been struggling for consistency.

The visitors have chalked up wins over Marseille and Strasbourg but suffered defeats to Lyon and Rennes since the turn of the year and they made PSG work hard for a slender win last time out.

The Greens fielded a weakened side in that defeat to Dijon but they amassed 72 per cent possession and had 22 shots, 11 of which were on target.

They will be wary of not taking their chances this time around and the visitors are a juicy price to get back on track with maximum points.

Recommendation
Saint-Etienne
1pt 5-4 Betfair, RedZone

Bet on this game at Soccerbase.com

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