This Sunday, April 18, Paris Saint-Germain will face AS Saint-Étienne as part of the 33rd day of Ligue 1 2020-2021 (kick off at 1 p.m., broadcast on Canal + Sport). And as before every match, here is the presentation of the opponent of the Parisians.
Saint-Etienne had a very bad 2019-2020 season, far from the previous one. Eliminated from the group stage of the Europe League and poorly placed in the league, the Saint-Etienne club even changed coaches during the year with Claude Puel who took the place of Ghislain Printant in October (ASSE did not was not yet eliminated from European competition, but already very badly embarked).
Except that the former LOSC (2002-2008) and Leicester (2017-2019) coach in particular couldn’t do much except save the day in the league with a 17th place finish. There was at least the Coupe de France final lost 0-1 against PSG to improve Saint-Etienne’s season record. But this season is not much more glorious at the moment, with only 13th place in Ligue 1 and a lot of irregularity. They come out with at least 2 victories, but against opponents themselves in difficulty.
The Greens have the 15th best attack in Ligue 1, with 36 goals scored (PSG is first with 71 and Dijon last with 20), and the 12th defense, because of 47 goals conceded (LOSC is first with 20 goals, Nîmes is last with 59 goals). The top scorers in Saint-Etienne are Denis Bouanga (26-year-old winger) and Wahbi Khazri (30-year-old attacking midfielder) with 6 goals each, they are 41st and 42nd (the first is Kylian Mbappé with 21 goals). As for the smugglers, you have to go to 38th place to find a Stéphanois. It’s Arnaud Nordin, 22-year-old striker, with 4 assists (the championship leaders are 9 places).
The last 5 matches of Saint-Etienne-
Only Saint-Etienne possession is indicated and shots from Saint-Etienne are put first (when data is available).
- 03/03/2021 (Ligue 1) – Saint-Etienne / Lens: 2-3. In 4-1-4-1. 66% possession. 18 shots including 4 on target against 9 shots (5 on target).
- 03/13/2021 (Ligue 1) – Angers / Saint-Etienne : 0-1. In 3-5-2. 46% possession. 7 shots including 3 on target against 4 shots (1 on target).
- 03/19/2021 (Ligue 1) – Saint-Etienne / Monaco: 0-4. In 3-5-2. 40% possession. 9 shots including 3 on target against 15 shots (4 on target).
- 04/04/2021 (Ligue 1) – Nîmes / Saint-Etienne: 0-2. In 4-1-4-1. 47% possession. 15 shots including 5 on target against 14 shots (3 on target).
- 04/11/2021 (Ligue 1) – Saint-Etienne / Bordeaux : 4-1. In 4-1-4-1. 36% possession. 17 shots including 6 on target against 10 shots (2 on target).
The group and the probable team –
The group :
👥 The 𝟮𝟮 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀 retained for #PSGASSE 👇 pic.twitter.com/LiiUsCu1Hs
– AS Saint-Étienne (from 🏡😷) (@ASSEofficiel) April 17, 2021
Absent – Yvann Maçon, Ryad Boudebouz, Anthony Modeste, Jessy Moulin and Stefan Bajic.
The team according to the press (4-4-2):
Green
Debuchy – Mouloudi – Cissé – Gabriel Silva
Camara – Gourna-Douath – Youssouf – Aouchiche
Bouanga – Khazri.
The style of play:
Ligue 1 teams tend to bet on a solid block first and aggressiveness, that will probably still be the Saint Etienne style here. Especially since this team has already bet on defense against other opponents. It will be necessary to be wary of his strikes far and of a few fast players (like Bouanga) or technically gifted (like Khazri.
As a reminder, the match’s referee is Ruddy Buquet.
