Monaco vs Lille
Monaco and Lille are set to square off at the Stade Louis II in a top-four Ligue 1 six-pointe.
It’s been a season of ups and downs for Monaco, but Adi Hutter’s men have found consistency at the crucial point, stitching together a seven-game unbeaten league run (W5, D2) to climb to second in the standings. Champions League qualification is a virtual-certainty for Monaco heading into the last five matches, especially after Hutter’s 9-man side squeezed past Brest 2-0 at the weekend, registering their second consecutive clean sheet in top-flight action. Making it three league shutouts in a row for the first time since April 2021 hinges on defying their underwhelming run against a Lille side they’ve only defeated once across their last seven meetings in Ligue 1 (D3, L3).
Meanwhile, visiting Lille eked out a 1-0 home win against bottom-half Strasbourg at the weekend to make it three league victories on the bounce, whittling down the gap on their hosts to three points. Extending their six-game unbeaten Ligue 1 streak (W4, D2) with a win in the French principality would catapult Les Dogues above Monaco in the table and consolidate their bid to reach the Champions League group stages. However, despite hitting a purple patch in the build-up to this trip, Paulo Fonseca’s men have been notoriously poor travelers, claiming just three wins in 14 away league outings this season (D7, L4) while only scoring 14 goals in the process, a tally outperforming just four sides.