Auxerre take on the visitors St Etienne in the first leg of French Ligue 1 relegation playoffs final. The match will be played on Thursday, May 26th at Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps (Auxerre).
Auxerre are still quite popular - many remember its peak, which came at the end of the last and the beginning of this century. But for a dozen years, the Burgundians have been hanging out in the 2nd division of the country. The current season was successful, but with a serious caveat: despite a sharp improvement in the results, and 11 wins in 14 last rounds (and in the last 7 there was only 1 draw at all), they failed to catch up with Ajaccio - the Corsicans eventually scored 1 point more, 75 to 74. As a result, instead of a direct promotion to the top division, they had to go to the playoffs. Moreover, for "Auxerre", two-stage. In the first there were problems with Sochaux: both main and extra time ended in a goalless draw. And only in the penalty shoot-out the Burgundians managed to proceed to the decisive stage of the battle for the last Ligue 1 ticket.
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Saint Etienne are considered as one of the main football legends of French football. But almost all of their rich collection of "green" accumulated decades ago. No, sometimes they have recently climbed into European competitions. But almost more often I had to play in the 2nd division of the country. After recent relative successes such as reaching the play-offs of the Europa League in 2017, the club has slipped into a fight for survival this season. In the end, the wards of Pascal Duprat recorded 4 defeats in a row. There would have been a 5th, which could put an end to battle for survival, but on May 21 in Nantes they managed to draw and Amuma scored 1-1 with a goal in the 79th minute. However, it is this point that has so far become vital - it helped to get ahead of a couple of the worst, "Bordeaux" with "Metz".
5 head-to-heads in a row ended in a draw after the full time. But the most recent game in the cup, after 0-0 in full time Auxerre scored 3 unanswered goals in extra time. However, this meeting took place in February 2017. Pellenar from Auxerre is questionable. At "Saint-Etienne" Neyu, Sow and Kolodzeychak are questionable, and Boudebuza was removed by the decision of the coach. It is unlikely that the opponents will show bright football in the first game under such conditions, realizing that everything will be decided in the second leg. We recommend betting on under 2.5 goals.
Prediction for the match: Under 2.5 goals scored.
