Lillevs.Strasbourg

The hosts enter matchday five of the French top-flight season in eighth place with six points, while the visitors are two places behind them with five points to the name.

Match preview

After reaching the quarter-final of the Conference League last season, Lille made their return to the Champions League in midweek but were unable to mark the occasion with a positive result, falling 2-0 to Sporting Lisbon in their opening match of the competition.

Angel Gomes, who made his England debut earlier this month, was shown a yellow card 21 minutes into the match for a push on Francisco Trincao, and was sent off less than 20 minutes later for Tripping Viktor Gyokeres moments after the Sweden international opened the scoring, forcing his side to play the entire second half a man light.

That result extended Les Dogues' current losing streak to four in a row, following a 2-1 defeat to Sparta Prague in the second leg of their Champions League qualifier, and back-to-back losses to Paris Saint-Germain and Saint-Etienne in the league respectively.

Since the arrival of Bruno Genesio, who replaced Paulo Fonseca in July, the 58-year-old has now taken charge of nine matches across all competitions, and has posted a record of four wins, one draw and four losses, though only one of those defeats came on home territory.

Last season, Lille beat Strasbourg 1-0 at this venue with Jonathan David scoring the only goal of the match, and they have now taken points from the last seven matches against this opponent at this venue (W 5 D2 L0).

Meanwhile, Strasbourg have put on a few impressive performances this season but a seeming inability to see out games from winning positions has led to them losing valuable early-season points.

Over the first four gameweeks, Le Racing gave up a 1-0 lead to draw 1-1 with Montpellier, squandered a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3 against Lyon, and again allowed a one-goal advantage to slip at home to Angers last weekend.

On a positive note, though, the Blue and Whites have already netted eight goals this season, including three in their sole victory to date over Rennes, putting them in joint-third for the most goals scored in the top flight four games into the season.

Like Lille, Strasbourg also have a new boss in the dugout in Liam Rosenior, and the former Hull City manager is about to enter arguably the toughest run of fixtures in his managerial career, with Marseille, Lens and Paris Saint-Germain to face in succession after this match.

Since arriving, Rosenior has had two away league games and three pre-season friendlies on the road, but has yet to win one, losing four and drawing one so far.

Lille Ligue 1 form:

Lille form (all competitions):

W

W

L

L

L

L

Strasbourg Ligue 1 form:

Strasbourg form (all competitions):

L

L

D

W

L

D

Team News

A portion of Lille's recent struggles can be attributed to their current injury list, which features the likes of Samuel Umtiti, Hakon Arnar Haraldsson and Nabil Bentaleb, who have not been able to feature at all this season.

Ismaily and Ngal'ayel Mukau are also ruled out for this weekend's trip due to a knee and ankle injury respectively, while Ethan Mbappe is still flagged as a major doubt.

Strasbourg are likely to be without at least three players for this match, including Thomas Delaine, Moise Sahi Dion and Yoni Gomis, all of whom are nursing knee injuries.

Newly arrived Sebastian Nanasi has made an impressive start to life in Ligue 1, notching up goals in each of his last two, while Emanuel Emegha and Andrey Santos have also scored twice over the first four games of the season.

Lille possible starting lineup:

Chevalier; Meunier, Ribeiro, Diakite; Santos, Gomes, Andre, Gudmundsson; Cabella, Zhegrova; David

Strasbourg possible starting lineup:

Petrovic; Doue, Sow, Sylla; Bakwa, Santos, Doukoure, Nanasi; Diarra; Moreira, Emegha

We say: Lille 2-1 Strasbourg

While Lille's recent record paints a fairly grim picture, it is worth noting that three of their last four defeats have been against European opponents and PSG, and only the defeat to Les Parisiens was on their home patch.

Strasbourg have looked impressive in attack this season, but we fancy the hosts to outscore them in this one.

Previews by email