Los Angeles Dodgers
Bounce-Back Time for Lille, Montpellier
Both Sides Coming Off Humbling Defeats
Lille will look to put a beatdown at the hands of PSG behind them when they head to Montpellier on Saturday. Montpellier also suffered an embarrassing loss last weekend, losing to last place Saint-Etienne.
The Las Vegas odds are in Lille’s favor and if Les Dogues are able to get all three points, they’ll leapfrog Montpellier in the Ligue 1 table.
- Game: Montpellier HSC vs LOSC Lille
- Location: Stade de la Mosson, Montpellier, France
- Date/Time: Saturday, Noon ET
| Team | Handicap | Moneyline | Total | Team Total |
| Montpellier | pk +120 | +205 | 2½ -125o | 1½ +165o 1½ -210u |
| Lille | pk -150 | +125 | 2½ -105u | 1½ +115o 1½ -145u |
| Draw | +260 |
Montpellier vs Lille Betting Preview
Head to Head
Defending champions Lille defeated Montpellier 2-1 last August to get their first win of the Ligue 1 season. Lille are undefeated vs Montpellier in eight consecutive games and have been a good pick to bet online in this fixture recently.
Montpellier Suffers Late-Game Collapse
Montpellier dropped their third Ligue 1 match in their last four and fell to Saint-Etienne 3-1 on the road last weekend. Sepe Elye Wahi scored within 15 minutes for Montpellier and they defended their lead for most of the match.
Then, they completely collapsed. Romain Hamouma got Saint-Etienne’s equalizer in the 82nd minute on an absolutely brilliant curling strike. The Greens went on to score two more goals before the end of the match.
It’s now back to the drawing board for Olivier Dall’Oglio and Montpellier. La Paillade have been much better for soccer betting at home than on the road this season. They’ve lost just three of 12 matches in Montpellier and got a big win over Monaco there a couple weeks back.
Relatively unchanged in the January transfer window, La Paillade will undoubtedly be aiming to qualify for European competition. They haven’t managed that since Olivier Giroud helped them win a shock title in 2011-12, qualifying them for the Champions League.
Currently in seventh place, fifth would be good enough to make the UEFA Conference League. It’s a miracle they’re even in contention since they lost Andy Delort and Gaetan Laborde at the beginning of the season. Both Stephy Mavididi and Elye Wahi have picked up the goal-scoring slack since their departures.
Lille Drops Back-to-Back Matches
Lille has the very unwelcome distinction of being the only team in any competition to concede five goals to PSG this season in its 5-1 loss.
Keeper Ivo Grbic will undoubtedly want to forget what was a horrific match for him. He mishandled a PSG cross that allowed Danilo Pereira to slot home the first goal of the match and completely missed the ball on a corner that allowed Presnel Kimpembe to score.
On the bright side, Hatem Ben Arfa made a big contribution on his Lille debut. The former French international produced an incredible bit of individual skill, beating two players to the byline and whipping in a cross that Sven Botman finished to draw level at 1-1.
Other than that, there weren’t too many positive takeaways from Lille’s performance. There were rumors that three of Lille’s best players, Renato Sanches, Jonathan David and Sven Botman, all wanted to quit the club in the January transfer window.
Nothing materialized for any of them but, if true, it would provide some context for such a bad performance. In their last two matches, Les Dogues have conceded seven goals and have lost two straight for the first time all season.
Lille has been one of the most inconsistent soccer picks of the season and it might be time to be a little concerned about the direction the now 11th-place side is headed.
Prediction
We’ll learn a lot about Lille’s resolve in this one. They haven’t lost three straight matches in Ligue 1 for two years and Renato Sanches should be back from injury in time to help avoid that fate.
Lille are the favorites, but I don’t think this one will be straightforward for them. A draw looks like an appealing bet at +260, although I don’t think it’d make either team happy.
