France Ligue 2:

 

Restart after the Christmas break and over the last two seasons, this round has tended to produce goals, an average of 2.6 per game in 2012-13 and up to 3.3 last season, across those 20 matches 18 of the away teams have scored and 65% of games have gone "over". That is a very short sample of course, but I like stats when there are obvious reasons for them and we can expect defences to be a little rusty after such a break and teams who did not play in the cup round last week to be at a significant further disadvantage in terms of match fitness. Only one of nine teams who did not feature in the Coupe de France won on this day last season and they were playing another team who had sat out the previous week. So a couple of starting points, we can expect more goals than usual and the teams who have not played a competive match for three weeks to be at a disadvantage this weekend, namely Troyes, Sochaux, GFCO, Angers, Le Havre, Clermont and Creteil .

 

Five matches to discuss today .......
 

Creteil- Auxerre

Thierry Froger was announced as the new coach of Creteil on Wednesday and has been given the clear target of keeping the hosts in Ligue 2 and three points above the drop zone, albeit with five teams below them and within a further three points of Le Havre in 11th, their mindset is very much of a club in trouble. I have spoken many times about the club being a breath of fresh air in Ligue 2 with their very open style of football and I hope that will not change too much under Froger, even if it does, it might take a while for him to get these ideas across to the players and one or two full training sessions, is probably not enough to have done so. Today they are without suspended five goal striker Faneva Andriatsima and they will miss him, he has only sat out two games in the last two seasons (one point from two home starts) . Just three cleansheets in 29 outings for Creteil and they have come this season against teams really struggling, all in the bottom six , including the two at the foot of the table.
 

Auxerre are in a comfortable upper mid table position and will be opting to look up, rather than down the table , they have lost just once on the road all season, but had to settle for a single point too often, if they can start turning one or two of those into wins, 2015 could get interesting and they will surely be looking to at least flirt with the top three and extend their season as long as possible. They are seven matches without defeat away from home, are on a long unbeaten run in all competitions ( just two defeats in 17) and have that match fitness edge over Creteil we have already spoken about.They arrive in confident mood and coach Jean-Luc Vannuchi claims to be firmly targeting three points, is eyeing up a promotion push and said he expects to name a very similar starting 11 to the one which won at home to Strasbourg in the cup last weekend.

 

Creteil home games have averaged a whopping 2.25 goals after the break, but the visitors have been very miserly in the second half with no team conceding fewer away goals. Therefore , I will stick with the visitors........
 

 

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