France Ligue2 Nimes vs Clermont

Nimes problems have been well documented and they sit bottom of Ligue 2 on 12 points, six from safety, however, if we gave them their eight point deduction back they would have five teams below them in the table and are clearly not the worst team in the division and recent form, especially in the goal scoring department has been good, with two goals in 5 of their last 6 starts and they have given themselves a chance of survival. They have some history of running into form at this time of year, in 2013-14 they looked in trouble at Christmas with only 15 points from 18 starts, but then collected the same number from the next eight (4-3-1) and last year, they went on a bit of a tear up with nine wins from 16 starts from November onwards which took them into the promotion race , before the match fixing claims stalled their run. The 29 points they collected in that sequence equates to 69 over a full season and that would have earned them second place and was the level they were playing at for three months and although this is not the same team, it does highlight their potential and they are not your typical bottom of the table team by any means.

Clermont are up to third, just four points off promotion pace and back on track after a mini blip with 13 goals and 13 points from five starts.

If we look at their last 30 L2 starts, they have collected an average 1.8 points and that is promotion form across almost a full season and they are clearly top 3 on merit. Two in form teams and both scoring for fun right now and each will surely be looking for three points and will be prepared to gamble to get them. Nimes will be without suspended central defender Anthony Marin.

We can expect this to really open up after the break with Nimes second halves averaging 1.7 goal per game and Clermont's 1.65 which are the 3rd and 4th highest in Ligue 2 .

Nîmes : Michel, Gallon - Cordoval, Briançon, Harek, Paquiez, Ripart, Azouni, Savanier, Cissokho, Mounié, Koura, Marin, Lacourt, Maoulida, Tchenkoua.
 
Clermont : Jeannin, Caillard - Agounon, Avinel, Bockhorni, Djellabi, Laporte, Martin - Boulaya, Ekobo, Espinosa, Genest, Hunou, Jobello - Diedhiou, Dugimont, Laborde

over 2.5 goals 2.21 asian line/Sportmarket