Olympique Marseille..........don't say I didn't tell you!
Feb 14, 2026
Ligue 1: Olympique Marseille- RC Strasbourg
Strasbourg are coming off a 2-1 defeat at Le Havre, I would not overly fret that, as they played 72 minutes with 10 men and that game was even and could have gone either way. Their previous starts under their "new" head coach were very good and full of goals (17 in last six) and at the foot of this email are notes on two of those and links to other Strasbourg previews, of which there are very many! They beat Monaco 3-1 and "won" BC's 6-0! They will be looking to bounce back again today and are very good at doing just that, winning 7 of 8 games next time out after a defeat. They are unbeaten in three visits to the Velodrome to play Marseille, who parted ways with head coach Roberto de Zerbi after a 5-0 defeat to bitter rivals PSG and a 3-0 loss to Club Brugge which saw them depart the Champions League and they are looking to mirror Strasbourg's numbers as they have conceded 16 goals in their last 7 outings.
My preseason notes on Marseille went an awful lot like this .....
I have a few negatives about Marseille. They picked up only 29 points in the second half of their season which is 6th /7th place level and xP also places them similarly, with 9 points fewer for the full campaign. OM have finished 2-5-2-3-8-2 across the last six seasons and they have not posted back to back top 2 finishes since 2010/11. They have sold Luis Henrique (7 goals and 8 assists ) to Inter Milan), their two big signings play in the same position and head coach Roberto de Zerbi is in his second season and has only stayed at one of his eight clubs longer and there was a big drop off at Brighton in his second (final) season of 14 points and 28 goals.
BTW I did write those in August and not this morning, but I forgive you for thinking that!
2.25 units Racing Club Strasbourg level ball @ 3.12 asian line.
Good luck!
Coupe de France : RC Strasbourg- AS Monaco
There were notes on Strasbourg in last Friday's newsletter ahead of their home game with European champions PSG. The Parisians edged home 2-1 and I came up short in my suggestion for RCS to score twice but they had scored and missed a penalty inside 28 minutes and that should have been a very early winner and Strasbourg created 3 BC's and 2.3 xGF. Now they host Monaco about whom I wrote recently .....
Monaco are in total disarray at the moment, they kindly lost 3-1 at home to Lorient last week who were winless on the road in Ligue 1 prior to that....
I expected Monaco to have a good season, but they have struggled in the league big time, are already on their second permanent manager of the campaign and Sebastian Pocognoli has yet to turn things around. His Champions League record of 2-2-0 is decent enough and they won both domestic cup games, but they have lost 6 of 10 Ligue 1 starts under him and are already 9 points off top 4 (Champions League pace) and a good chance that two spots are already secured and out of their reach. Not sure what they expect from the league now.
Expected numbers do not offer much solace for Monaco, neither does that -3 goal goal difference and everything suggests that they are exactly where they should be. Lorient should be 4 points and 10 goals better off and just a hair's breadth behind ASM.
That was a 4th straight league defeat for ASM and to compound matters they lost 6-1 at Real Madrid in midweek. They host Juventus on Matchday 8 of the Champions League on Wednesday where they will probably need something to make the knockout stage and surely that has to take priority. Hard to see how they can get anything from the league now, apart from trying to avoid getting dragged into a relegation scrap and the CL and the domestic cup have to be targets to try and salvage something from this campaign.
They drew 0-0 with struggling Le Havre and Juventus and then beat Rennes 4-0, so three clean sheets in a row. The draw with Juve did allow them to scrape into the knockout stage of the Champions League where they were "rewarded" with two games against PSG! I am not going to read too much into their big win over Rennes as their opponent seems to have suddenly hit the buffers .....
| 24-Jan-2026 | L1 (19) | Rennes | 0-2 | Lorient |
| 31-Jan-2026 | L1 (20) | Monaco | 4-0 | Rennes |
| 03-Feb-2026 | CdFr (r11) | Marseille | 3-0 | Rennes |
But it was a comfortable win and confidence boost and as I said above, ASM need to make the most of the two cup competitions, but neither of their draws are easy.
We are likely to see goals, I think RCS are the better side right now, but ASM perhaps more needy and with a good h2h record in this stadium, so an unusual bet(s).....
1.75 units RC Strasbourg to win and both teams to score @ 4.24 asian line.
1.25 units AS Monaco to win and both teams to score @ 5.01 asian line.
We don't just sell football betting tips, as you can see there is an extensive analysis behind our asian handicap selections. Subscribing to our sports betting advice service need not break the bank. Learn more by visiting our subscriptions page.
Country:
Sport:
Competition:
Football Teams: