AS Monaco vs Nantes Preview

The French Ligue 1 curtain-raiser comes up this Friday with Monaco hosting Nantes in the Stade Louis.

The hosts are hoping to improve on a third-place finish from last season and will be heading into this game with the desire to kick off with a win to ensure that they set the early pace in the league proceedings.

Niko Kovac’s side ran out 2-0 winners in their last game against Sparta Prague in the Champions League and will be confident of building on that impressive win.

They have lost just one of their last seven games (including friendlies) and will fancy their chances of extending their winning run against Nantes to seven games.

The visitors finished 18th in last season’s Ligue 1 table and are only playing in the top division this season because of the away goal rule that saw them qualify via the relegation play-offs.

With Antoine Kombouaré their fourth manager in the last 49 league rounds, it is hard to envision anything but a loss for them in this game.

However, with this being the first game of the season, they will want to begin on a good note and set themselves up for a higher league finish.

However, a winless run against Monaco that stretches back to 2017 and a four-game winless run in Ligue 1 season openers does not inspire so much confidence for Nantes and the betting odds mirror this statistic.

Other fixtures taking place this week in France Ligue 1:

France Ligue 1 Table

France Ligue 1 Results