First meets second in Tuesday's Champions League Group G battle as Lille welcome Red Bull Salzburg to the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
Jocelyn Gourvennec's side prevailed 2-1 against Sevilla on matchday four, while Salzburg went down by the same scoreline to Wolfsburg.
Match preview
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Lille have struggled to assert their dominance domestically and continentally since Jocelyn Gourvennec took the reins from Christophe Galtier, with a second successive Ligue 1 title now surely too far out of reach for the reigning French champions.
Les Dogues also failed to win any of their first three group games in the 2021-22 Champions League but quickly surged into the top two of the rankings with a 2-1 success at Sevilla on matchday four, as Jonathan David and Jonathan Ikone cancelled out Lucas Ocampos's opener.
All of a sudden, Lille are in with a real shot of progressing from the tightly-fought section as they sit second in the group - level with third-placed Wolfsburg - and they could end the matchweek at the top of the pile should they prevail against Salzburg here.
Gourvennec's men enter this game on the back of a frustrating domestic result, though, as after going 2-0 up against Monaco courtesy of David's brace, Les Monegasques hit back through Krepin Diatta and Wissam Ben Yedder in a 2-2 draw.
As a result, it is only one win in seven across all competitions for Lille heading into Tuesday's encounter, but they have strung together a seven-game unbeaten run at home and will have one foot firmly in the knockout stages with a positive result here.
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Salzburg's extremely young squad - as talented as they may be - are seemingly starting to struggle to keep the momentum going as colder temperatures set in, with the Austrian champions winning just one of their last four games in all competitions.
Matthias Jaissle's side found themselves 1-0 down against Wolfsburg after just three minutes following Ridle Baku's opener before Maximilian Wober restored parity, but Lukas Nmecha came up with the winning goal on the hour mark to see Salzburg leave the Volkswagen Arena empty-handed.
Salzburg were also held to a goalless draw in the Austrian top flight by Admira Wacker on Saturday but remain top of their Champions League group with seven points to their name, and another three will be enough for progression with Lille and Wolfsburg - both two points behind - facing off on the final matchday.
Both of Salzburg's Champions League group-stage wins this season have come on home soil, but they have developed a hot scoring streak on the road, netting in each of their last 10 away Champions League games since drawing a blank at Red Star Belgrade in 2018.
Two penalties from teenage sensation Karim Adeyemi saw Salzburg prevail 2-1 when they welcomed Lille to the Stadion Wals-Siezenheim in September, and the 19-year-old would do well to repeat the same trick in Lille as his many admirers watch on.
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Team News
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Lille duo Benjamin Andre and Jonathan Ikone will be forced to miss this encounter due to suspension, with Renato Sanches's injury depleting Gourvennec's options in the middle.
Amadou Onana is back from a domestic ban and should take Andre's place in midfield, while Angel Gomes, Timothy Weah and Yusuf Yazici will all battle for spots in place of Ikone and fellow injury absentee Jonathan Bamba.
Veteran striker Burak Yilmaz will expect to rejoin David up top, but centre-back Sven Botman is still a couple of weeks away from returning due to a groin issue, and Reinildo is recovering from gastroenteritis.
Salzburg midfielder Nicolas Capaldo is back from his own ban this week, but Zlatko Junuzovic - one of the experienced heads of the squad at 34 - is still struggling with heel pain.
The visitors also remain light at the back with Kamil Piatkowski and Bryan Okoh out for the long term, but Oumar Solet's return to fitness is a timely boost.
Benjamin Sesko and Noah Okafor are both battling to partner Adeyemi up top against Lille, while another up-and-coming starlet in Junior Adamu is another option.
Lille possible starting lineup:
Grbic; Celik, Fonte, Djalo, Bradaric; Weah, Xeka, Onana, Yazici; David, Yilmaz
Red Bull Salzburg possible starting lineup:
Kohn; Kristensen, Onguene, Wober, Ulmer; Capaldo, Camara, Siewald; Aaronson; Adeyemi, Sesko
We say: Lille 1-1 Red Bull Salzburg
Lille's depleted defence and midfield will have a hard time keeping out Salzburg's bright young attackers, but the visitors have struggled for consistency in recent weeks.
With Group G surely set to go right down to the wire either way, we expect a share of the spoils at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy, with Gourvennec's hopes of victory dashed by a concerning number of regular starters absent.
Top tip
Ben Knapton
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 37.68%. A win for Red Bull Salzburg had a probability of 34.02% and a draw had a probability of 28.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Lille win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.86%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (7.88%) and 2-0 (7.06%). The likeliest Red Bull Salzburg win was 0-1 (11.12%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.23%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with an 11.9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Lille in this match.
