Although Lorient drew 1-1 at home to Grenoble last season, they managed to win 3-1 away at Grenoble later on in the same season.
This season, the two have already met once at Lorient with the home side winning by the odd goal (1-0). That was a League Cup fixture though that took Lorient to the final 16.
Their league campaign so far is more than satisfying with a mere loss and 2 draws in their last 8 games. That run took them all the way up to 4th slot on the table, just 2 points away from Auxerre at the very top.
Grenoble on the very contrary are having a dreadful season, and I mean that to the fullest extent of the word “dreadful”. The fact they are at the foot of the table with just 2 points after 13 games says it all, so there is really no need to talk about their form any further.
However, those 2 points were earned in their last 2 games, after having lost 11 games in succession. A goalless draw at Monaco earned them their 1st point of the season just before the international break, and last weekend they managed a 1-1 home draw vs Lyon, so these two results have put me off backing the home side on a mere 1.50 (Bet365, Expekt, Pinnacle or Unibet).
If I am to take the risk and back the home win though I would rather do it on the double result (Ht/Ft) market. Lorient seem to like to score in the last 10 minutes of the 1st half, and take their lead into the 2nd half, while the visitors have been down at halftime on 4 of their 6 games on the road so far this season.
Also Grenoble have only scored once on the road to-date and have not found the net in their last 5 games on the travel (6 if you count the League Cup defeat to Lorient), so Lorient to keep a clean sheet is also an option.
I’ll combine the two though (in search for an arbitrage bet) so I’ll take Lorient to win in the 1st half with under 0.75 goals also in the 1st have.
Picks:
Lorient -0.5 A.H. (1st half) @ 2.14 w/ Ladbrokes
Under 0.75 goals (1st half) @ 2.18 w/ Ladbrokes
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