Stade Rennais vs Racing Club Lens
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Today’s free tip is in the French Ligue 1 encounter between Stade Rennais and Racing Club Lens.
As expected, a mid-week trip to Russia proved problematic for today’s hosts, who struggle to control games at the best of times, even with Nzonzi now in their squad. It’s been a real learning curve for Stade Rennais, this European football malarkey – I just hope they’ve learned a lot from it, even though bottom spot in the group is now guaranteed.
Indeed, I see no real need for the hosts to rotate here ahead of their match versus Sevilla CF next week. I think they need to get their Ligue 1 campaign back on track, and that means winning today after a string of unconvincing domestic displays. Hosting newly-promoted Racing Club Lens should not be the most damning of fixtures that they have, as much as the visitors have impressed me since getting promoted, and they’ve certainly got the quality to prove it.
I think Stade Rennais are going to have to prove it in the final third though – that’s the key here. I guess that’s standard for them anyway, given their inability to defend, but with Aguerd and Rugani amongst the absentees here, it’s even more paramount that the attack functions properly. Guirassy’s absence isn’t ideal, but is manageable with Niang now back in the fold. I’m still not blown away by what looks like a decidedly fatigued Stade Rennais but they’re not very good at conserving energy anyway. In other words, their approach will always require bundles of energy, and they’ll simply have to try and score more than Racing Club Lens here, which they’re certainly capable of.
The timing of the fixture does favour the visitors here, at least when you factor in that Stade Rennais have played a game every three days or so. Furthermore, Racing Club Lens have got most of their players back to full fitness now, which was an issue for them for a few weeks. However, not all of them look match ready at the moment, and that’s led to less ‘measured’ displays from today’s away team. It’s not led to that many defeats, mind you, but their approach all season long has been very calculated, and they’ve won games very intelligently. What I’ve seen from Racing Club Lens lately cannot be described as such, though.
It could be that other teams have cottoned on to how good they are now, and are paying them more respect, or it could be what I said earlier – that some of their players are not yet ready to be back to where they were. Whatever the case may be, Racing Club Lens have become a lot more open. Understand that their priority upon returning to Ligue 1 was to score enough goals to stay in it. With Ganago up top, Kakuta pulling the strings, and Jean prowling, that’s going to happen. Even youngster Muniga and their big target men have performed well this season; teams do not find it easy to contain Racing Club Lens.
It’s become increasingly apparent that there’s a gap in front of the Racing Club Lens back four though. Fofana was the one they brought in to do it, but he was injured for a long time now, and still doesn’t look right. Boss Haise rightly said they didn’t want to rush him, and I respect that, but in the meantime it’s Cahuzac playing there, and every time he isn’t sent off, I consider it a large surprise because he does more than enough to warrant it. This area is where teams are choking Racing Club Lens, and without a set back four in place yet, it’s plain to see why things have been going a little worse than normal for them of lately.
With the above in mind, I cannot help but feel that we’re in for an open and entertaining affair here. I wouldn’t be so bold as to pick a winner, but backing both teams to score at 4/5 – well, it simply makes sense.
Verdict: Both teams to score at 4/5.
Saturday’s Thoughts
As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.
Austrian Bundesliga:
Austria Vienna vs Sturm Graz
SCR Altach vs St. Polten
Admira Wacker vs Salzburg
Belgian Eerste Klasse:
Waasland-Beveren vs Royal Excel Mouscron
OH Leuven vs Cercle Brugge
Club Brugge vs Sint-Truiden
Brazilian Serie A:
Botafogo vs Flamengo
Fluminense vs Athletico Paranaense
Santos vs Palmeiras
Bahia vs Ceara
Coritiba vs RB Bragantino
Bulgarian A PFG:
CSKA 1948 Sofia vs Beroe
Levski Sofia vs Arda
Croatian Prva Liga:
NK Osijek vs Varazdin
Czech Republic Liga 1:
Opava vs Banik Ostrava
Sigma Olomouc vs Marila Pribram
Bohemians 1905 vs Pardubice
Viktoria Plzen vs Karvina
Danish Superligaen:
Vejle vs FC Midtjylland
English Premier League:
Burnley vs Everton
Manchester City vs Fulham
West Ham United vs Manchester United
Chelsea vs Leeds United
Faroese Logmanssteypid:
Vikingur Gota vs HB Torshavn
French Ligue 1:
Stade Rennais vs Racing Club Lens
Montpellier HSC vs Paris Saint-Germain
German Bundesliga:
SC Freiburg vs Borussia Moenchengladbach
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Bv09 Borussia Dortmund
Koln vs VfL Wolfsburg
Arminia Bielefeld vs Mainz 05
Bayern Munich vs RB Leipzig
German Bundesliga 2:
Hamburger SV vs Hannover 96
Greuther Furth vs Heidenheim
Osnabruck vs Karlsruher SC
Eintracht Braunschweig vs St. Pauli
Hungarian Liga 1:
Zalaegerszegi TE vs Mezokovesd-Zsory
Diosgyori VTK vs Ferencvaros
Puskas FC vs Varda SE
Israeli Ligat Ha’al:
Ironi Kiryat Shmona vs Maccabi Haifa
Maccabi Petah Tikva vs Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv
Hapoel Haifa vs Bnei Sakhnin
Hapoel Tel-Aviv vs Maccabi Netanya
Italian Serie A:
Spezia vs SS Lazio
Juventus vs Torino
Internazionale vs Bologna
Italian Serie B:
Cremonese vs Virtus Entella
Frosinone vs Chievo Verona
Lecce vs Venezia
Salernitana vs Cittadella
SPAL vs Pisa
Reggina vs Brescia
Dutch Eredivisie:
RKC Waalwijk vs VVV Venlo
Fortuna Sittard vs Willem II
AFC Ajax Amsterdam vs FC Twente Enschede
PEC Zwolle vs Vitesse Arnhem
Portuguese Liga 1:
Vitoria Guimaraes vs Portimonense
Moreirense vs Gil Vicente
Famalicao vs Sporting Clube de Portugal
FC Porto vs Tondela
Portuguese Liga 2:
Feirense vs SL Benfica II
UD Oliveirense vs Arouca
Vizela vs Academico Viseu
Russian Premier League:
Lokomotiv Moscow vs Rubin Kazan
Spartak Moscow vs Tambov
Zenit St. Petersburg vs Ural Sverdlovskaya Oblast
FK Krasnodar vs Rotor Volgograd
Spanish Primera Liga:
Levante CF vs Getafe CF
Sevilla CF vs Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid vs Real Valladolid
Cadiz vs Barcelona CF
Swiss Super League:
FC Basel vs Servette
Swiss Challenge League:
Chiasso vs FC Schaffhausen
Winterthur vs FC Thun
Turkish Super Lig:
Goztepe vs Kayserispor
Genclerbirligi vs Alanyaspor
Konyaspor vs BB Erzurumspor
Yeni Malatyaspor vs Istanbul BB
Galatasaray vs Hatayspor
Enjoy your free betting tips!