As much as Lorient were helped by some individual Lyon errors in midweek, take nothing away from Les Merlus' stunning start to the campaign, and a third-straight win at the Stade du Moustoir is on the cards.
Nantes battled well on Thursday night but are working with less rest time than their in-form counterparts, and their away-day struggles are set to continue versus the rejuvenated Merlus, who are determined to avoid a 12th game without a win in this fixture.
Read more.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Lorient win with a probability of 40.38%. A win for Nantes had a probability of 32.23% and a draw had a probability of 27.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Lorient win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.48%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.39%) and 2-0 (7.44%). The likeliest Nantes win was 0-1 (9.99%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.94%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 2% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Lorient would win this match.