Clermont v Montpellier

It’s crunch time for Clermont in Ligue 1, who know that a single victory will probably be enough to keep them out of an automatic relegation spot, while four points may be sufficient to see them avoid the need for a playoff. On paper, Sunday’s match with Montpellier is their most straightforward, with European chasers Strasbourg and Lyon to follow. This is the game they will be targeting for victory.

They need to bounce back from a 2-0 loss against Brest last weekend – in which they went down despite playing 10 men for more than half the match. Prior to that, they had been three undefeated.

Montpellier, meanwhile, have suffered 10 defeats away from home this season, including in each of their last three road trips. Their overall form, meanwhile, has been wretched, with 10 losses in their last 16.

Perhaps their biggest issue approaching Sunday’s game, though, is the massive weight of injury issues they are carrying. They are stripped of their best creative midfielders in Remy Cabella and Teji Savanier, while their best defensive midfielder, Jordan Ferri, will also miss out. Furthermore, 10-goal teenager Eyle Wahi is a major doubt.

Although the defence will be at full strength, this is an area of the team that has been off form lately, with nine goals conceded in their last three matches.

This Montpellier side is winding down for the summer, with head coach Olivier Dall’oglio’s future uncertain, and against a Clermont side fighting for their lives, they may not have the capacity to resist another loss.

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Reims v Lens

Lens retain slim hopes of qualifying for European football next season and they have shown in recent weeks that they fully intend to push as hard as they can to secure it. Successive draws against PSG and Nantes tell little of the story in those matches, with Lens fighting back from seemingly impossible positions in both games to get a point in each.

Prior to those fixtures, their form had seen them pick up three successive wins against Nice, Lille and Montpellier.

Meanwhile, they take a strong squad to Champagne for Sunday’s match. Only goalkeeper Jean-Louis Leca, who was sent off in the first half last weekend, is missing.

Conversely, Reims continue to be troubled by injury issues, with risks unlikely to be taken over striker Hugo Ekitike, who may be available this weekend, given that they secured their survival last weekend with a 2-1 win over Lorient.

Although they recently beat Lille at home, this is not representative of their home form as a whole, with their survival push coming largely thanks to wins on their travels. Indeed, in the second half of the season, they only have that success plus a victory over relegation-threatened Bordeaux to their credit in terms of home victories.

Against a motivated Lens side who have already defeated them 2-0 this season – and who are undefeated in the league against Reims in their last three meetings – it would be a surprise if that statistic were to change.

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PSG v Troyes

PSG should feel like they have a point to prove after back-to-back draws against Lens and Strasbourg. The manner in which they folded in the latter stages of both those games and threw away four points is the antithesis of what they spent much of the first two-thirds of the season doing.

Certainly, there should be no question that PSG will win this game. After all, they have won all but three home fixtures in all competitions this season, with those anomalies all ending in draws, two of them scoreless.

Indeed, Troyes would be delighted with a 0-0 on Sunday. They will surely go to Parc des Princes with the idea of damage limitation, with head coach Bruno Irles having built a reputation for pragmatism since taking over.

Although they picked up a 3-0 win over Lille last weekend, all those goals arrived from the penalty spot and they were the benefactors of some extremely generous refereeing. Indeed, the four goals they have scored in their last four games have all come from the spot. They are unlikely to be granted more of the same at the home of the champions.

Prior to that game, they had lost successive matches by a 1-0 scoreline, buckling in the closing stages against Clermont and Nice when it seemed 0-0 draws were likely.

After recording only one cleansheet in their last seven in the league, look for PSG to redress the balance in this game against an attack that has only troubled the net 33 times this season, making it the second worst in the whole league.

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