Two teams who have collected seven points from their last three games in Ligue 1 will do battle at the Stade du Moustoir on Saturday as Lorient play host to Reims.
Christophe Pelissier's men held Rennes to a 1-1 draw in the midweek round of fixtures, whereas Reims played out a goalless stalemate with Angers.
Match preview
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Most teams would need a number of weeks to get back up to scratch after a devastating coronavirus outbreak. For Lorient, however, they have completely turned their fortunes around since returning to the pitch.
Les Merlus enjoyed two 3-2 victories on the bounce over Dijon and Paris Saint-Germain before managing to take a point from a Champions League-chasing Rennes side on Wednesday, with Quentin Boisgard coming off the bench to cancel out Martin Terrier's opener at the Roazhon Park.
Lorient have now taken as many points from their last three fixtures as they had from their previous 13 before their COVID-19 cluster, and it definitely seems like Pelissier took the opportunity of an extended break to reassess where things had gone wrong for his side this season.
Whisper it quietly, but Lorient could be about to pull off a great escape from the relegation zone, as the 18th-placed Merlus have now opened up a four-point gap between themselves and Dijon, while 17th-placed Nantes - who have played a game more - are level on points with Lorient at this stage.
As long as Lorient do not suffer defeat to Reims, they will climb out of the bottom three for at least 24 hours, and they would have every right to feel confident about staying there with Nantes facing a showdown against leaders Lille on Sunday.
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Reims have also won two and drawn one of their last three matches in the French top flight, as David Guion continues to oversee a welcome revival after a shaky start to proceedings.
Two consecutive 1-0 victories over Brest and Strasbourg propelled Les Rouges et Blancs further away from the dotted line, but they were unable to make it three on the trot as they shared the spoils with Angers in a drab midweek affair.
However, that goalless stalemate represented Reims' third clean sheet in a row and they have lost just one of their last nine in Ligue 1, so any fears of relegation will certainly be quashed if Guion's men can keep up this sort of consistency over the coming weeks.
That being said, only two of their last seven away matches have ended with 12th-placed Reims coming out on top, although 20 of their 30 top flight goals have come on unfamiliar territory - only Lyon (23) and Paris Saint-Germain (21) have found the back of the net more times on the road this season.
Lorient took the spoils in a 3-1 meeting with Reims earlier in the season, during which Guion's side had two players sent off, and a victory for the hosts here would extend their winning run against Les Rouges et Blancs to five matches.
Lorient Ligue 1 form: DLLWWD
Reims Ligue 1 form: DWLWWD
Team News
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The large majority of Lorient players affected by COVID-19 have now returned, but Vincent Le Goff and Paul Nardi are still battling their way back and may not be ready for the weekend.
Thomas Monconduit missed out against Rennes with a calf problem and is unlikely to be back in time for this one either, while Stephane Diarra and Thomas Fontaine also occupy spots in the treatment room.
Pelissier may opt to go with a more attacking approach in this winnable game, so the likes of Boisgard and Armand Lauriente will hope to earn recalls to the first XI.
Reims centre-back Wout Faes is suspended next weekend for an accumulation of bookings but is available here, while Ghislain Konan should return at left-back after Thibault De Smet went off injured on Wednesday.
Boulaye Dia now finds himself three goals behind Kylian Mbappe in the race for the Golden Boot, and the 24-year-old will aim to end a four-game run without finding the back of the net against Lorient.
Arber Zeneli and Marshall Munetsi - the latter of whom was linked with a last-minute move to England on transfer deadline day - will miss out through injury.
Lorient possible starting lineup:
Dreyer; Delaplace, Laporte, Gravillon, Hergault; Lauriente, Le Fee, Chalobah, Abergel, Wissa; Moffi
Reims possible starting lineup:
Rajkovic; Foket, Faes, Abdelhamid, Konan; Cassama; Cafaro, Chavalerin, Berisha, Mbuku; Dia
We say: Lorient 2-2 Reims
Having beaten PSG and held Rennes to a draw over the past fortnight, Lorient will feel capable of giving any team a good run for their money at the moment. However, fatigue may soon start to set in for the hosts after their coronavirus outbreak, and Reims know how to find the back of the net away from home, so we expect a fascinating affair to end with the spoils shared.
Top betting tip
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 Lorient win with a probability of 37.45%. A win for Reims had a probability of 35.79% and a draw had a probability of 26.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Lorient win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.15%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.19%) and 2-0 (6.54%). The likeliest Reims win was 0-1 (9.88%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.72%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 10.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Lorient in this match.
