Bastia VS Saint Etienne

Bastia welcome St. Etienne for this French Ligue 2 round 21 clash at Stade Armand Cesari early Wednesday morning Beijing time. My fans and I have done well betting on French Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 and this match is yet another very interesting betting opportunity! The biggest, often somewhat smart bookmakers that offer the largest betting limits see the visitors as favorites offering them odds of around 2.60 to travel home with all three points – at least at the time of writing this analysis late Tuesday evening Beijing time. I do expect the odds on Bastia to go down though as sharp money is expected to pile up on the hosts I definitely cannot agree with the bookmakers' estimation.. Based on my very sophisticated in-depth analysis Bastia deserve to be the favorites. Saint Etienne were relegated from Ligue 1 for this season and have been incredibly bad so far! They should have the potential to do much better. Moreover, according to a well-known and respected German website, Transfermarkt.com, their squad has a total market value of over 40 million euros. This is a big number by Ligue 2 standards. However, as I have mentioned many times before, the market values, that are given increasingly more emphasis by the betting market and most professional bettors, can sometimes be very misleading.. Saint Etienne are a great example of this and the market value and past success must be the main reason behind their too low odds here. The visitors currently occupy the 19th place in this league with a total of 20 teams. They have grabbed just 18 points so far. However, we must remember that three points were deducted from them by a federation decision.

Saint Etienne do have pretty much offensive power and have scored 28 goals in this league so far this season. Their defense, on the other hand, has been hilariously shaky and they have allowed 34 goals – the highest number in Ligue 2. Their defense has lacked structure, the defenders have made too many stupid mistakes and have often been a bit lazy too. Furthermore, the midfielders should be more active in defending if they want to climb up the standings.. They surely will, but the betting market still seems to give their potential too much emphasis. A sudden improvement in their game is, after all, not probable at all.. In their most recent match they lost to Sochaux as clear favorites according to the betting market at home 2-3. Once again, their defense was leaky! Before this they took a narrow win away from home over the rock-bottom team Niort 1-0 after a somewhat balanced clash. I was not impressed by this performance and Niort should have scored at least once. Before this they were pretty good against a pretty lowly team Laval at home though taking another 1-0 win. Bastia are having a strong season and have historically been very strong in front of their loud and loyal fans. They are currently in 5th place with 31 points to their account but have scored just 19 goals. However, their number of expected goals (xG) is 23.12. Their defense has been solid and they have allowed just 21 goals. On paper their defense is not top leveö but their structure is excellent and silly individual mistakes are few. They have been in fine form lately, especially in this league recording three wins and two draws in their most recent five games.