Coupe de la Ligue Final: Strasbourg vs. Guingamp
Saturday 30th March
20:05
This year will finally see PSG’s stranglehold on the Coupe de la Ligue trophy come to an end and represents a fantastic opportunity for one of France’s lesser known clubs to grab some valuable silverware. Strasbourg are sitting comfortably in 10th place in Ligue 1, while by comparison Guingamp are down in the bottom three and fast running out of time to secure safety.
They’re seven points adrift of 17th-placed Amiens with just nine games to go, while they possess the divisions’ worst goal difference to boot, though they’ll take comfort from their recent head-to-head tussles with Strasbourg.
All three encounters since the start of last season have been tight affairs as they each yielded fewer than three goals, with Guingamp holding the upper hand as they did the double over Strasbourg last term, while only a late strike prevented them from taking all three points when they met this season back in October.
Guingamp were particularly poor in the early stages of the season and have improved since Jocelyn Gourvennec arrived in the dugout in November, even knocking PSG out of this tournament at the Parc des Princes.
Over 2.5 goals at
They’ve suffered defeat in just one of their last five matches now, while they’ll be encouraged about their chances of success with Strasbourg enduring their worst spell of the campaign to date.
Thierry Laurey’s outfit have struggled in the absence of central midfielder Jonas Martin, who broke his ankle against Monaco in January, as they’ve failed to win in seven outings without him now. Although they threw away a two-goal lead at Nimes last time out, it’s typically been the other way around and they’ve actually conceded the first of the game in six of their last seven matches where there was at least one strike.
However, with three of Guingamp’s four goals since the start of February coming after 85 minutes on the clock, we’re not so sure they’re equipped to take advantage.
Each of their past five matches have seen no more than one strike, and with Strasbourg enduring stalemates in four of their past five, there’s little to separate these two.
The last time the Coupe de la Ligue final saw a low-scoring game came back in 2013 as Saint-Etienne beat Rennes 1-0, but then again each of the past five seasons saw the Parisians lift the title and they tend to score for fun against any team France has to offer.
However, ‘unders’ is too short at the prices to back and it’s the draw that primarily interests us in a game where chances should be at a premium.
*all odds are subject to change
