Despite their contrasting league positions, Saint-Etienne and Strasbourg square off on Sunday afternoon as two of the form teams in Ligue 1.
The visitors, who are in fourth spot, have won five of their last six games, while 18th-placed Saint-Etienne have prevailed in their last three fixtures.
Match preview
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While Strasbourg did not necessarily start out as the surprise package of the season, they are certainly regarded as that now as they push for Champions League qualification.
Seven wins have been recorded from their last nine fixtures, the most recent success coming last weekend as they edged out Angers by a 1-0 scoreline.
Kevin Gameiro netted the decisive goal during that contest, contributing for his fourth successive outing and taking him to nine goals for the season.
Head coach Julien Stephan will be satisfied that each of their last two wins have been by the narrowest of scorelines, a response to losing 4-3 at Bordeaux.
Crucial meetings with Nice and Monaco are coming up for Les Bleu et Blanc, but Stephan will stress that his players must focus all of their attention on overcoming a vastly-improving Saint-Etienne side.
Having lost a further seven league games either side of the turn of the year, Les Verts were odds-on favourites to be relegated to Ligue 2.
However, three successive wins under recently-appointed boss Pascal Dupraz have come out of nowhere, and they are a couple of victories away from pulling clear of danger in the short term.
Their recent successes have been against Angers, Montpellier and Clermont, clubs which occupy 13th, 11th and 15th position in the standings.
Goals have been shared around the team over the past two games with Wahbi Khazri finally ending a goal drought which has lasted since the end of October.
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Team News
Having replaced Lucas Gourna-Douath at half time last week, veteran midfielder Romain Hamouma may be drafted into the Saint-Etienne XI.
Denis Bouanga could come back into the team as a replacement for Arnaud Nordin, but prospect Adil Aouchiche is likely to remain on the substitutes' bench.
Stephan may opt to stick with the Strasbourg starting lineup which began the game against Angers.
While Habib Diallo is an option in attack, it would come as a surprise if Stephan does not stick with Gameiro and Ludovic Ajorque.
Anthony Caci is an alternative at left wing-back if Stephan wants a fresh look in that area of the team.
Saint-Etienne possible starting lineup:
Bernardoni; Sacko, Mangala, Nade; Thioub, Boudebouz, Hamouma, Kolodziejczak; Camara; Bouanga, Khazri
Strasbourg possible starting lineup:
Seis; Perrin, Nyamsi, Caci; Guilbert, Thomasson, Prcic, Sissoko, Lienard; Ajorque, Gameiro
We say: Saint-Etienne 1-2 Strasbourg
All things considered, this has all the makings of an entertaining clash, and we cannot conclusively dismiss Saint-Etienne's chances. Nevertheless, we have been impressed by Strasbourg's character in recent weeks, leading to us predicting a narrow win for the visitors.
Top 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 Strasbourg win with a probability of 46.5%. A win for Saint-Etienne had a probability of 27.93% and a draw had a probability of 25.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Strasbourg win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.88%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.23%) and 0-2 (8.26%). The likeliest Saint-Etienne win was 1-0 (8.01%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.15%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 5.2% likelihood.
