Bergerac vs Saint-Etienne

Saint-Etienne will be overwhelming favourites to advance to the Coupe de France quarter-finals when they take on Bergerac at the Stade Francis Rongieras.

Fourth-tier outfit Bergerac have made the distance in the Coupe de France since overcoming fellow lower-league side Montlucon 1-0 in the preliminary round. They have since gone on to sweep Stade Bordelais aside with an overwhelming 4-0 triumph before squeezing past Creteil and Metz via penalties to reach the last-16 quite unexpectedly. Erwan Lannuzel’s men have proved a tough nut to crack lately, keeping an eye-catching seven consecutive clean sheets in all competitions ahead of this fixture. However, scoring goals has not been Bergerac’s strong suit by any stretch of the imagination, with the home side drawing a blank in four of their last five competitive outings. That includes a brace of scoreless draws in the build to this encounter, which has also been the case in their two previous Coupe de France ties.

On the other hand, Saint-Etienne grabbed a vital 1-0 win at Angers in midweek Ligue 1 action, reinforcing their bid to avoid relegation following a dreadful start to the season. After ending a run of back-to-back top-flight defeats – both of which came via a single-goal margin – they are back in Coupe de France action, where they’ve won both previous ties by an aggregate score of 5-1. Since both of those successes came at the expense of lower-league teams, St Etienne will feel confident of reaching the competition’s quarter-finals for the first time since losing the 2019/20 grand final at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain. Curiously, none of their last seven competitive away fixtures have ended as a draw (W4, L3), with 71.43% of those results (win/loss) yielding an identical 1-0 scoreline.