Ligue 1, Bundesliga and Serie A predictions & free football tips from Liam Flin

Best bets and predictions for Saturday's matches in Ligue 1, the Bundesliga and Serie A.

Best bets

Lens to win & under 3.5 goals v Clermont Foot 4pm
1pt 6-5 BoyleSports, Coral

Bayer Leverkusen to beat Stuttgart 2.30pm
2pts 8-11 bet365, Hills

Napoli to win & over 2.5 goals v Udinese 2pm
1pt 21-20 Coral

Saturday European preview

Lens still have a long way to go in the race for the Champions League places in Ligue 1 this season but they are doing everything right at the moment and can sign off in style before the World Cup break.

Franck Haise's men have started the season with ten wins in 14 league matches, including victories in each of their last four contests, against Montpellier, Marseille, Toulouse and Angers.

They trail red-hot Paris Saint-Germain by only five points and can justify favouritism at home to Clermont Foot on Saturday.

Florian Sotoca and Lois Openda have been in fine form up top but the defensive stability of Lens also deserves praise with the Blood and Gold shipping only nine times in the league this campaign.

Clermont are winless in their last four fixtures but three of those games finished 1-1 and they can also limit the damage at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, where a Lens win and under 3.5 goals looks the wisest bet.

The start of Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen tenure has been patchy but things are looking up after two strong performances in the last week and they are worth a bet at home to Stuttgart.

Leverkusen sent shockwaves through the Bundesliga on Sunday with a 5-0 mauling of early pacesetters Union Berlin, turning on the style in the second half.

But they followed that with another solid win on the road against Cologne and are pulling away from the drop zone.

Stuttgart left it late to beat Hertha Berlin on Tuesday but on the road they have been hopeless, failing to win any of their six away league matches this season, and they should be opposed.

Napoli show no signs of relenting in Serie A having shut out Empoli 2-0 on Tuesday to open up an eight-point gap at the summit.

That was their tenth straight win in the league and they are fancied to make it 11 on the trot against a Udinese team who have gone off the boil after a strong start to the campaign.

The Friulians are winless in their last seven matches in all competitions, last picking up maximum points in Serie A at the start of October.

However, they are still finding the net with regularity, scoring in 11 of their 14 league assignments this term and can play their part in a high-scoring contest at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, where top-heavy Napoli have seen an average of 3.14 goals per league game in 2022-23.

Napoli to win and over 2.5 goals is worth a look at odds-against.

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