Brest entertain Lille on Sunday as the 2020-21 Ligue 1 campaign continues, with the visitors looking to keep pace with league leaders Paris Saint-Germain.
The hosts, meanwhile, sit just a point above the relegation zone after three consecutive defeats, so will be looking to arrest their recent slide down the table.
Match preview
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Indeed, having survived in their first season back in the top flight by virtue of being in 14th place at the time all French football was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Olivier Dall'Oglio has to prove that he can sustain survival across an entire campaign.
In fairness, Brest had a seven point cushion above 18th place with ten matches remaining, so relegation was an extremely unlikely prospect even if fate did transpire to completely remove it from the equation.
At present, though, Dall'Oglio's side look like one which could struggle, having just 31% possession of the ball in their 2-1 defeat to Rennes last weekend. Franck Honorat had given the visitors the lead, but two quickfire goals from Damien Da Silva and Nayef Aguerd gave Rennes the three points.
Losing at a side currently competing in the Champions League was far from a disgrace, but the previous losses to Nantes and Strasbourg - two sides below them in the table - were certainly very disconcerting. Taking anything against Lille will be a tough ask, with the forthcoming international break perhaps welcome for the club as a whole.
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Lille, meanwhile, may have drawn their last two league games, but generally they are making great progress under the tutelage of Christophe Galtier.
The 54-year-old has taken them to second in the table with the second best goal difference in the league behind PSG, and they remain the only unbeaten side in Ligue 1.
Last weekend's frustrating 1-1 home draw to Lyon, with the visitors reduced to ten men for the majority of the second half after Marcelo's red card, was put well and truly behind them on Thursday with a fantastic 3-0 win at Serie A leaders AC Milan in the Europa League.
Yusuf Yazici is yet to start in the league this season yet scored a hat-trick for his sixth goal in three European matches. The 23-year-old must be wondering what he has to do to get into Galtier's first XI.
In fairness, though, Lille are certainly blessed with plenty of attacking options, with Burak Yilmaz and Jonathan Bamba both on four goals already this season. Galtier will expect his side to have more than enough firepower to dismantle their opponents on Sunday.
Brest Ligue 1 form: WLWLLL
Lille Ligue 1 form: DWWWDD
Lille form (all competitions): WWDDDW
Team News
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Dall'Oglio is without Denys Bain for the foreseeable future after the central defender ruptured his cruciate ligament.
Otherwise, Brest appear to have no first team absences, so can at least put their strongest XI out in an attempt to gain a positive result against France's second best side at present.
Galtier, meanwhile, appears to have no injuries or suspensions to concern himself with, giving him a real headache in attacking areas.
Yazici is pushing for a first league start of the season after his hat-trick at San Siro, while the club's record signing Jonathan David is still searching for his first goal for the club.
Brest possible starting lineup:
Larsonneur; Faussurier, Chardonnet, Duverne, Perraud; Honorat, Belkebla, Mbock, Favire; Mounie, Cardona
Lille possible starting lineup:
Maignan; Celik, Fonte, Botman, Mandava; Araujo, Andre, Sanches, Bamba; Yilmaz, Yurici
We say: Brest 1-3 Lille
Brest have had the week off which does give them a slight advantage compared to Lille, who played in Milan on Thursday night, but we still expect the unbeaten visitors to get back to winning ways given their attacking quality.
The hosts have conceded more goals than any side in the league, so the likes of Yilmaz and Bamba could run riot.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 3.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 3.5:data
Brett Curtis
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 Lille win with a probability of 46.61%. A win for Brest had a probability of 27.97% and a draw had a probability of 25.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Lille win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.71%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.26%) and 0-2 (8.21%). The likeliest Brest win was 1-0 (7.88%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.08%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 2% likelihood.
