Angers v Lille Betting Tips: Great opportunity for Stéphane Moulin’s side

19:56, 25 aug 2017
19:56, 25 aug 2017
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On Sunday afternoon, one of the standout bets in Ligue 1 looks to be Angers to beat an injury-plagued Lille in front of a home crowd. The hosts, despite a high turnover of personnel during the summer, have made a pleasing start to the new campaign, especially from an attacking point of view, and really do appear to have been presented with an excellent opportunity to maintain their unbeaten run and, more importantly, earn their second victory of the campaign.

There was plenty of hype surrounding Marco Bielsa’s appointment at Lille a few months ago and the Argentine manager, who is known as something of a revolutionary, is likely to do well in Northern France. Having said that, his tenure, though only three matches old, has already been plagued by something of an injury crisis. The visiting side have a number of players out at the moment and could be set to struggle for the third match in a row. At the prices, the hosts look an excellent bet and simply cannot be opposed ahead Sunday’s clash.

Having enjoyed a pleasing campaign last term, one that saw them reach the Coupe de France final only to be denied by PSG in the 91st minute, Angers have started the new season in good fashion. As was the case last season, Stéphane Moulin’s men have been playing some promising attacking football and have yielded the rewards by scoring five goals in three matches. They may have kept just one clean sheet but score-draws against both Bordeaux and Marseille are impress results nonetheless. What’s more, the hosts were very useful at Stade Raymond Kopa last season, losing just six of their 19 home matches, only one of which came against a side outside of the top half. On top of this, Angers have a pleasing home record against Lille, beating them, without conceding, in both of the last two seasons.

Lille did of course start the season well by beating Nantes 3-0 at home on the opening weekend; however, things have quickly gone down hill since. Bielsa seems to have an injury list that is growing by the week and was hampered further when first-choice goalkeeper Mike Maignan decided to foolishly get himself sent off in their last away match. Maignan is one of seven first-team regulars who’ve been ruled out of this match; Bautheac, Benzia, Malcuit, Mendes, Mendyl and Soumaora are the other six who’re currently sidelined. To add insult to injury, Vincent Enyeama is also a doubt which means third-choice keeper 20-year-old Kouakou Hervé Koffi is likely to feature between the sticks.

With so many players out, Lille have understandably been struggling in recent weeks. They never got going in that embarrassing 3-0 away defeat against newly promoted Strasbourg two weeks ago, while they also fell well short against Caen at home last week, losing by two goals to nil. Both of those defeats have seen Bielsa’s men create little going forward while they’ve certainly not been all that hard to beat defensively. With this in mind, a high-intensity, attack-minded Angers should be licking their lips ahead of facing this wounded beast in front of their own fans.

With things the way they are right now, it’s impossible to fancy Lille here and the home side are very much expected to kick the visitors when they’re down. A third successive victory against Lille on home soil looks well and truly on the cards for Angers and they’re worth backing to come out on top at a very generous-looking 5/4.

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