Football Results

In one of more interesting matches of the 32nd round of the French Ligue one two teams that are still in the race for European positions will meet each other, where Nice currently occupies the 7th place in the table and has one point fewer than 5th-positioned Rennes, but it can boast with fact that it won three and drew one match out of their last four head-to-head, including away victory of 1-0 won in Rennes last autumn.

Nice

In the meantime Nice had a bad period but has improved in last four rounds in which it won three and lost just one match when it faced leading PSG at home. Thanks to those better results team led by manager Favre is back in the race for positions that lead to Europe and now, before facing 5th-placed Rennes Nice has just one point fewer than its opponent.

Right because of that it would be very good for Nice to defeat on Sunday its direct competitor in the race for the fifth place that is the last that lead to the Europe League, which is why we expect Nice offensive from the first minute. On top of it, Plea is in good goal scoring mood lately and we all know how much dangerous can be Balotelli in attack. Let’s add that only injured defender Jellet is out of action for match with Rennes.

Probable lineups OGC Nice: Benitez – Souquet, Dante, Sarr, Le Marchand – Cyprien, Seri, Lees-Melou – Saint-Maximin, Balotelli, Plea

Stade Rennes

We have said in the introduction that Rennes is in very good shape ahead of the Sunday’s match, given it won even four and drew three matches in last seven rounds, which propelled them to the fifth place in the table. Of course, their main objective by the end of season is to stay there as the position qualifies them for the Europa League but we should bear in mind that four other teams want the fifth place and that point differences between them are very small.

It means that each next mishap of any of these teams significantly reduce its chance to reach the Europe, and consequently Rennes primarily wants to stay undefeated in Nice on Sunday, while in offensive it will rely mostly on fast counter-attacks. After a shorter break the team first scorer Sakho should join the starting line-up, while not fully recovered defender Traore is still questionable.

Probable lineups Stade Rennes: Koubek – Danze, Gelin, Gnagnon, Bensebaini – Andre, Prcic – Bourigeaud, Khazri, Sarr – Sakho

Verdict:

Since this is a direct clash in the race for the Europa League it can be expected that both teams primarily try to stay undefeated, although both are very efficient lately and therefore we have opted here for a pick with goals on both sides.

Pick:  both teams to score 1.84 - 84/100 @1XBet