Bastia - Pau FC predictions and free betting tips [26/09/2023]

We're moving to the "Arman Cesari" stadium, located on the island of Corsica. The football club "Bastia", the UEFA Cup finalist of 1978 and the holder of the Intertoto Cup of 1997, plays here. In the eighth round of League 2, it will play with one of the notable clubs in all senses of France, "Pau", which is younger than the "blue", but the titles of the "Yellow-Blue" exist only at the regional competition level.

Let's move to the line-ups, who might take the football field at the commune of Bastia.

Predicted Team Lineups

Bastia: Boucher; Bonnet, Roncaglia, Drame, Keita, Tavares; Vensan, Ducrocq, Lienard; Santelli, Djoco

Pau: Kamara; Koudou, Batisse, Ahoussou, Ruiz, Obiang; Saivet, Beusnard, D'Almeida, Sylla, Boutaib

Bastia

Last season, the "blues" looked good, finishing fourth, but given that the quota was reduced, the club “Bastia” was 12 points away from entering League 1, and under the current regulations could have become participants in the play-off for the third ticket to the top division of France.

The team of Regis Bruard is now in the lower part of the league table, starting the 2023/2024 season with a mixture of failures and games where they managed to score points. A tasty game with "Troyes", where “Bastia” made a comeback, a fairly logical win over "Valenciennes" - these are 6 points that the club from Corsica can boast of. There are draws that showed the luck of the "blues", since in these matches there should not have been any zeros in the conceded column for Bruard's team, but the opponents did not deserve to win either.

Remembering the previous season, even then “Bastia” lacked stability in terms of results, nevertheless there were enough victories to be in the first part of the table to start with. The current start sent the "blues" into the second decade, but the season is only gaining momentum, therefore the players and the coaching staff of “Bastia” should not worry too much about this.

There are questions for Bruard about the squad. There is no certainty with the goalkeeper, but for now, Julien Fabrizio is the main one, and after the disqualification, Johnny Placide may return to the starting line-up. After the move of Van den Kerkhof, “Bastia” has no right-back.

If we see a bit of pragmatism from Bruard's team, then “Pau” will again fail to win on the road this season, but a draw will not suit “Bastia”, especially against a neighbour in the table, for whose 14th place is normal. I hope that the "blues" will show smart football as the number one and still create enough moments and manage to take advantage of them for a home win, which needs to be won to rehabilitate themselves in front of the fans after the failure in the game with "Laval".

Pau

Considering the club's budget, it must be understood that the goal of “Pau” is to stay in League 2 so as not to return to the previous semi-professional level. The last year passed in diligent work, because the dense part of the table near relegation did not allow the club from the same-name city in the southwest of France to relax. However, “Pau” solved the problem but changed the coach, because now the team is led by Nicolas Usai, who came to the club in the summer.

"Pau" has the same tasks, but the ways to solve them are different. Under the previous coach, the team tried to play a bit specifically, using a defensive scheme, but applying sufficiently fast football, reminiscent of attacking in some parameters. Now there is a small balance in terms of tactics, and Usai's ideas are still in the process of formation, as he recently joined the team and it makes no sense to demand quick changes from him.

There are no questions about the squad for the coaching staff, only observations that cannot be overlooked. "Pau" tries to be productive in offensive, but due to difficulties in organising the defence, it is difficult to overshadow problems near their own goalkeeper with an attack. I think that with “Bastia” we will not see anything new from “Pau”, rather, Nicolas Usai will try again to maintain a balance between offense and defence, but the team will certainly not stop running forward with a desire to score goals.

Match prediction: Bastia - Pau

I would bet on the hosts. They have a more established game, although there are difficulties, of various sorts, which Regis Bruard and his wards have to deal with. “Pau” is a lower-level team compared to “Bastia”, in addition, Usai's team has a number of problems before this game.