Monaco look to continue their Ligue 1 recovery when they welcome struggling Metz to Stade Louis II on Sunday afternoon.
The hosts still sit a disappointing seventh in the league, despite some better results of late, whilst Metz have also been improving but remain 19th.
Match preview
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Monaco are now without a loss in their last six games in all competitions, but they seem to have a problem finding crucial goals, as four of those have ended in draws.
There is not a common theme, such as a lack of goals or a leaky defence, as the draws have finished with scorelines of 0-0, 1-1 and 2-2, they just seem to match the opposition's tally whatever it may be.
That was not the case on Wednesday evening, though, when Les Monegasques took their first league victory since late October away at Angers.
First-half goals from Myron Boadu and Sofiane Diop put the visitors in control, and they overcame a scare when goalkeeper Alexander Nubel was unfortunate to see the ball ricochet into his own net, wrapping up a 3-1 victory courtesy of Axel Disasi.
Now Niko Kovac will hope to build on that win and make a push for the European spots.
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Losing their opening three fixtures to begin their 2020-21 campaign was not good, but after 15 games this season, it has been much worse for Frederic Antonetti and his Metz side, who have only two wins thus far domestically and are in early relegation trouble.
Halloween had appeared to bring about a change in fortunes with a five-game unbeaten run through November, including a friendly win over Kaiserslautern and a surprise away victory against high-flying Nice.
That momentum may have ended on Wednesday, however, as they fell to a 3-1 defeat at home to mid-table Montpellier.
Teji Savanier opened the scoring after 36 minutes and two quick goals either side of half time had wrapped up the result for the visitors long before Nicolas de Preville's consolation.
Les Canaris have not given their loyal fan base a lot to be happy about when playing in front of them, having failed to earn a league win at the Stade Saint-Symphorien in almost an entire year, so perhaps their trip to the riviera could be a blessing in disguise.
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Team News
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Monaco will be without Cesc Fabregas and Benoit Badiashile, who both have hamstring injuries, and Krepin Diatta, who suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in their draw with Lille.
Jean Marcelin remains a doubt with a torn muscle fibre but Kevin Volland, who has three goals and three assists for them so far this year, will return having served a yellow card suspension.
The attacking midfielder is set to come straight back into the starting XI, replacing Gelson Martins.
Without Matthieu Udol for many months due to a knee injury, Metz have now also lost Kevin N'Doram for a lengthy period - the midfielder will be absent for three months according to Antonetti.
The visitors will also be without Habib Maiga for another couple of weeks as he recovers from a calf issue.
Monaco possible starting lineup:
Nubel; Aguilar, Disasi, Maripan, Jakobs; Fofana, Tchouameni; Golovin, Volland, Diop; Ben Yedder
Metz possible starting lineup:
Oukidja; Jemerson, Kouyate, Bronn; Delaine, Bassi, Sarr, Centonze; Traore, De Preville; Niane
We say: Monaco 2-0 Metz
The form of Metz may be improving - and their record on the road is not the worst - but we are backing Monaco to continue their recovery and pick up a valuable three points here. Kovac appears to be getting his players to believe again and, if they can build some momentum, last year showed what this squad is capable of.
Top tip
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 Monaco win with a probability of 68.09%. A draw had a probability of 19.6% and a win for Metz had a probability of 12.35%.
The most likely scoreline for a Monaco win was 2-0 with a probability of 12.88%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (12.5%) and 2-1 (9.55%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (9.28%), while for a Metz win it was 0-1 (4.5%). The actual scoreline of 4-0 was predicted with a 4.6% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Monaco would win this match.
