📏 Form Guide

RC Lens

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RC Lens go into this match coming off the back of a 1-1 Ligue 1 tied result versus Nice.

In that game, RC Lens had 54% possession and 16 attempts on goal with 4 on target. The scorer for RC Lens was Allan Saint-Maximin (60'). Nice got 9 shots at goal with 2 of them on target. Ali Abdi (84') was the scorer for Nice.

It has been seldom in recent times that RC Lens have managed to hold out for a full 90 minutes. It will be a concern for them that RC Lens have seen their defence breached in 6 of their previous 6 games, leaking 11 goals in the process. Such a pattern might not be carried forward into this next game, though.

Going into this contest, RC Lens are undefeated in their previous 3 league matches at home.

Nantes

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Nantes head into the clash following on from a 3-0 Ligue 1 win in the defeat of Marseille in their most recent fixture.

In that game, Nantes managed 42% possession and 16 shots at goal with 5 of them on target. For Nantes, the scorers were Ignatius Ganago (50'), Rémy Cabella (54') and Matthis Abline (58'). At the other end, Marseille had 16 shots on goal with 8 on target.

In the course of their six latest matches, Vahid Halilhodžić's Nantes have seen their goal attempts be successful 5 times, giving them the goals per game average of 0.83.

Leading up to this clash, Nantes:

• have not registered a win against RC Lens in games played away from home for the previous 6 league games. They'll be keen to stop this run.
• have not won away from home in their last 7 league games.

🤜🤛 Head to head

A review of their most recent head to head clashes dating back to 01/03/2023 shows us that RC Lens have won 4 of these games and Nantes 2, with the number of drawn games being 0.

20 goals were produced between them in these games, with 12 of them from Les Artésiens and 8 belonging to Les Canaris. That’s an average goals per game figure of 3.33.

The previous league encounter between the two was Ligue 1 match day 15 on 06/12/2025 which ended up with the score at Nantes 1-2 RC Lens.

On that occasion, Nantes had 34% possession and 10 attempts on goal with 4 on target. Their only player on the scoresheet was Youssef El-Arabi (38').

RC Lens had 21 shots at goal with 6 on target. Florian Thauvin (34') and Wesley Saïd (81') scored.

The match was refereed by Benoît Bastien.

📰 Team News: RC Lens

Régis Gurtner (Hamstring injury), Jonathan Gradit (Lower leg fracture) and Kyllian Antonio (Foot injury) aren’t available for RC Lens gaffer Pierre Sage. Suspended players who are serving a ban for this game are Mamadou Sangaré and Adrien Thomasson.

It’s our opinion that Les Artésiens could use a 3-4-3 system this time, utilising Robin Risser, Pierre Ganiou, Samson Baidoo, Malang Sarr, Ruben Aguilar, Amadou Haidara, Andrija Bulatovic, Matthieu Udol, Florian Thauvin, Odsonne Edouard and Allan Saint-Maximin.

📋 Team News: Nantes

We believe Les Canaris seem most likely to elect for a 4-3-3 system, starting Patrik Carlgren, Frederic Guilbert, Chidozie Awaziem, Sekou Doucoure, Nicolas Cozza, Johann Lepenant, Mohamed Kaba, Ibrahima Sissoko, Matthis Abline, Ignatius Ganago and Remy Cabella.

💡 Prediction

In this game, Nantes won’t find it easy at all to get a goal against a RC Lens outfit who appear set to control this match over the entire pitch.

We reckon that it will be a commanding 3-0 victory for RC Lens at the end of this one.

Peter Guest, 07:04 06/05/2026