Pull out your calculators and stat sheets, folks... whoops, I mean dear listeners, let's dive headfirst into this Ligue 1 face-off between Lorient and Clermont Foot.
Looking at the guardians of the goalposts, Clermont Foot has Mory Diaw, posting a pretty solid 6.73 rating with 10 saves. But - aha! - Lorient isn't far behind with Yvon Mvogo, who's edged out Diaw with a 6.80 rating and almost double the saves at 19. Promising stuff from team Lorient on the goalkeeping front, I must say.
Let's swing our gaze to the front of the battlefield, where players from both teams are standing tall. Clermont Foot has quite the offensive trifecta - Elbasan Rashani and Muhammed Cham-Saračević with 2 and 3 goals respectively, and Grejohn Kyei who's been keeping the defense busy with their shots.
Buuut, Lorient counters with their own menacing trio of Mohamed Bamba, Julien Ponceau, and Benjamin Mendy, each with a goal to their name this season. And remember, Ponceau has been consistent with a whopping 88.2% accuracy with his passes, which could spell trouble for Clermont Foot.
Let's sand off the edges with some history. Our past meetings show Clermont Foot sneaking past Lorient with 1-0 and 2-0 victories. Hmm, history tends to repeat itself, does it not?
But - plot twist! The regular season record is a little lackluster for both, with Clermont Foot at 5-10-18 and Lorient slightly edging ahead with 6-8-19. Oh, what poor souls those statisticians must be, looking at those numbers.
So, where does that leave us? Predictions, predictions. Let's see, if Lorient can leverage their slightly better season performance and solid goalkeeping, they might be able to overcome the historical advantage Clermont Foot has over them. But then again, this is football, and as they say, the ball is round.
Albert’s Prediction: Lorient by 1