Friday 08/08/2014, 20:30, France Ligue 1, Round 1, Reims vs PSG

Reims vs PSG Preview

The French first division begins tonight and not surprisingly, it is the reigning champions PSG that will play in the opening match. They won't get the chance to impress their fans on Friday, but traveling to Reims is not exactly a huge challenge, given the head-to-head record and the visitors' form. The hosts know that they are very likely to start the championship on the wrong foot, because winning points against the best team in French football will be very difficult.

Reims vs PSG Odds

At Expekt

Reims 9.00, Draw 4.80, PSG 1.35

Reims vs PSG Tips

PSG won the domestic championship with relative ease and their highly anticipated contest with AS Monaco didn't result in a breathtaking finish. It is very likely that 2014 will bring very few changes in the starting formation, as the team played brilliantly in the previous season and packs quite a punch upfront.

It is extremely important for the reigning champions to win the opening match, because they don't want to find themselves trailing a pack of teams early on. It definitely helps that they played plenty of games recently, including a couple of challenging friendly matches. Without a doubt, the most important match played by PSG since the regular season ended, was the Super Cup against Guingamp that they won easily without conceding a goal.

Once again, the visitors will find themselves playing against a team defending with all lines for 90 min., in an attempt of keeping a clean sheet. A scoreless draw in front of their fans would be celebrated as a victory, so it comes as no surprise that the hosts will use a single striker. Oniangue was their most prolific forward last season as he scored 10 goals, so he will be given the chance to do it again against PSG.

The hosts were not particularly interested in testing their team during the season break, mostly because very few changes were made in the roster.

The only match they played over the span was the friendly game with Metz that ended undecided, with both teams scoring once.

Key Facts

• PSG is on a scoring spree, with 19 goals in six friendly games and they won five of them
• The two teams met on four occasions and the reigning champions won three times, each time without conceding a goal, while scoring a total of seven.

Reims vs PSG Prediction

The fact that PSG plays on the road doesn't seem to have a deterring effect on bookmakers, who still underprice them heavily. In order to extract some value from this match, punters would need to take additional chances, more precisely to bet on the visitors to cover the -1.5 goals spread.

Bet: PSG -1.5 goals @ 2.15 with Expekt