Metz vs Lille

Metz and Lille will face-off against each other at the Stade Municipal Saint-Symphorien in their first Ligue 1 game of the new season.

A third consecutive Ligue 1 season for Metz means they are firmly on their way to establishing themselves as a permanent top-flight fixture. Adding to this sentiment, a tenth-place finish in 2020/21 was their highest in Ligue 1 since 1998/99. A top-six finish long seemed to be within Metz’s grasp, but an awful return of one triumph from the final 11 league matches last season ended those hopes (D3, L7). Two wins from their last 13 Ligue 1 openers is hardly inspiring (D5, L6), though one of those victories came at the expense of Lille back in 2016. Speaking of the open-end problems, ‘Les Grenats‘ are riding on an alarming eight-game winless streak in home Ligue 1 games (D2, L6), the worst ongoing run among the top-flight clubs.

Moving on to the visitors, they achieved Ligue 1 glory in 2020/21, defying all the odds to beat overwhelming favorites PSG to the league crown. However, Christophe Galtier, the mastermind behind Lille’s successful season, left the club to take charge of Nice in the summer. Meanwhile, a couple of first-team stalwarts departed for high-profile moves, leaving ‘Les Dogues‘ with an almost impossible task of retaining the Ligue 1 title this season. Yet, a hard-fought 1-0 win over PSG in their recent Trophée des Champions showdown could serve as a massive confidence boost heading into the new league campaign. Encouragingly, no team returned more away Ligue 1 points than Lille (46) in 2020/21, with the Stade Pierre-Mauroy outfit boasting an impressive 77.78% win rate across last season’s top-flight trips (GP18 – W14, D4, L1). That trend looks like to continue here, with Lille beating Metz in seven of their previous nine Ligue 1 meetings here (D1, L1).