AS Saint-Etienne vs FC Toulouse 20.09.2013 ligue 01

 

AS Saint-Etienne – FC Toulouse – On Friday we traditionally analyze the first match of the current round in the strongest French league, and this time it is a duel between old rivals St Etienne and Toulouse. Otherwise, these two teams were completely different at the start of the season, and after five rounds St. Etienne is the second with 12 points, while Toulouse only won three points and they are currently penultimate at the table. However, Toulouse was slightly more successful in their mutual matches from last season, because they celebrated at home with 2-1, and they had a draw of 2-2 away. Begins: 20.09.2013 – 20:30 CET

AS Saint-Etienne

St. Etienne had a great start in this new season of Ligue 1, and so far they have been defeated only once and it was in Lille, while in their remaining four matches they recorded as many wins. They mastered Bordeaux and Guingamp at home and Ajaccio and Valenciennes away. This last match was played last weekend and they celebrated with 3-1. Otherwise, the hero of this match was their newcomer Corgnet who scored two goals, while Hamouma scored the third one, so these two players will probably again play instead of Cohade and Mollo. The rest of the team should remain the same as in the last two games, in which they actually shown to possess a strong character since they recovered quickly after their three consecutive losses, where one was against Lille in the championship while the other two happened in the playoffs of the European League against the Danish Esbjerg. However, this elimination from these European competitions was actually a good thing for this team, because they will now devote their maximum attention to the championship, and their main goal is to qualify in the Champions League. We should also add that their strikers Gradel and Brandao and defender Baysse will miss this match against Toulouse due to their injuries.

Probable lineups AS Saint-Etienne: Ruffier – Clerc, Sall, Perrin, Ghoulam – Clement, Lemoine – Hamouma, Corgnet, Tabanou – Erding

FC Toulouse

Unlike St. Etienne, Toulouse had a very bad start in this new season, and they still have not managed to achieve any victories in the five rounds played. However, they are still undefeated at home, having two draws of 1-1 against Bordeaux and Marseille, and they also won one point away against the leading Monaco, without any received goals. But in their other two performances at Valenciennes and Bastia they remained empty handed, which is why the atmosphere in their team before this duel with the extremely unpleasant St. Etienne is quite bleak. However, their coach Casanova still hopes that his players will manage to set things right in defence, which is already a much better part of the team, while in attack they primarily rely on their rapid counter-attacks by Regattina and Trejo and their most offensive player Ben Yedder. Otherwise, a big handicap for this team is that they are still without their injured first striker Ben Basata, as well as without midfielder Aguilar and defender Zebina, who got injured at the beginning of the season