Ligue 2: Auxerre- Bourg en Bresse Peronnas 01
Auxerre travelled to Beauvais to play Red Star on Monday and ahead of that game I soke about how despite their lowly 9th place, they were not quite out of the promotion race ......
Red Star currently occupy the third and final promotion spot and could open up a four point advantage over the team in fourth with the win this evening, which, with just eight rounds then left to play would be huge. Home advantage in their homely Beauvais stadium, where crowds sometimes struggle to get into four figures, is suspect, they have collected five more points on the road and have conceded 70% of all goals allowed this season ,here. Auxerre are way down in 9th, but three points would take them to within four of Red Star and with two of their next three starts against teams immediately above them in the table, a big run, starting today, could take the visitors close to the promised land. They are unbeaten in six and head coach Jean-Luc Vannuchi has been quite bullish and said that his team had trained hard all week, with just one aim ............to come here and collect all three points.
They won that 2-0, the points might only have taken them up to 8th, but they only trail Red Star by four now and feel that they are right in the heart of the battle for a place in Ligue 1. After this evening they play Racing Club Lens and FC Metz, teams who are currently in 6th and 7th and it is clear to see how a continuation of their current good form could take them a very long way . They were focused on the win and nothing else on Monday and it should again be a case of all or nothing this evening. We do often speak about that Monday- Friday quick turnaround being difficult to deal with, but we have the international break up next and no need for AJA to leave anything in the tank and we will surely see another motivated and committed performance.
Ahead of a recent home game with Clermont my notes on BEBP touched upon a hectic season looked to be catching up on the team who were promoted from National in the summer...........
Recent starts have been far less exciting, but only three teams have scored more than BEBP and no team outside the drop zone has conceded more and I would not normally see them sitting back today against a team with a very similar mindset. But, they do look tired after 36 games already this season, all against a higher level of opponent than they are used to and four of those also went to extra time and they are missing several key players today, with top scorers Boussaka and Sane (17 goals between them) out, along with goalkeeper Fabri, his replacement Sebastien Callamand has yet to keep a clean sheet in seven starts ( giving up 1.71 goals per game) , they have lost four of those, one draw and in the two wins, the now absent Sane scored three goals . They look big losses.
They lost that 2-1 and ahead of last week's visit from highflying Nancy, I updated their situation ..........they (BEBP) are falling closer and closer to the relegation zone and despite a point at Nimes last week (where they really rode their luck at times) they now sit just nine points off the bottom three, have collected just 14 points from 15 starts and have to be giving praise for such a solid start to life in Ligue 2. It is hard to get away from the idea that they have run out of steam (see above) and that they are no longer the surprise package they were early in the campaign. Today we have the second worse defence in L2 against the second best attack and there should certainly be goals in this for Nancy, who are looking to preserve their healthy lead in second place over the chasing pack. One, maybe more of Red Star, Le Havre, Clermont, Lens will come on strong in the next two months, Nancy know that and actually face two of those teams in the next four weeks and also travel to leaders Dijon and points today will surely be easier to come by and would greatly ease pressure ahead of those tough fixtures. I think they will be out all guns blazing for maximum points today and will be buoyed by their first real defensive performance last week in a 2-0 win over Red Star, however, it came at a cost and today they will be without both left back Vincent Muratori and central defender Mikael Chretien Basser, the pair have missed just three starts between them this season and that is very disruptive. Nancy had conceded twice in each of their previous four starts, including at home to Paris Fc and the visitors seem unlikely to win without conceding.
BEBP won that 2-0 and Nancy really struggled defensively. The three points, allied to five of the bottom six failing to win, took the home side into a healthy lower mid table position and suddenly they look safe, or at least very close to confirming survival and their need is no longer as great. I suspect anyway that the win there had as much to do with Nancy's defensive woes as anything else, the team in second place have now conceded twice in 5/6 starts and need to address their slide.
Auxerre have to consider this a great fixture at this stage of the campaign and will not want to undo all the good and hard earned work they did on Monday by dropping any points today and head coach Jean-Luc Vannuchi ( see above) was repeating that ad infinitum in training this week, urging his players to "maintain the spirit". The hosts will have to do without versatile and suspended Gregoire Lefebvre, but otherwise have no new problems and I expect them to win.
1.5 units Auxerre -0.5 ball 2.13 asian line/Sportmarket.
Auxerre : Boucher, Aguilar, Hountondji, Konaté, Guirassy, Kilic, Ba, Fumu Tamuzo, Courtet, Vincent, Berthier, Seck, Sefil, Montiel, Sylla, Puygrenier, Lenogue, Mabiala.
Good Luck.
