Lille will look to equal a club-record unbeaten run when they travel to the Stade de l'Abbe-Deschamps in Ligue 1 on Friday night to face Auxerre.
The hosts have been brilliant on home soil this season, though, even if they have hit a brick wall in recent weeks.
Match preview
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As a newly-promoted outfit, Auxerre made a mockery of all pre-season predictions that suggested they would struggle to stay up making a fantastic start, but results have fallen off a cliff since December.
After winning their final three games in November, including thrashing Marseille on the road, Christophe Pelissier's men have been unable to hit the same heights since losing to Toulouse on December 1.
Since December, Auxerre have taken just two points from four games, and were knocked out of the Coupe de France by Ligue 2 Dunkerque at home to end 2024.
The new year got off to a poor start as well, because even though Pelissier's side led against Strasbourg, they collapsed in the second half to lose 3-1, meaning they fell to ninth, and are now as close to the bottom three as they are to the top six.
Auxerre have not qualified for Europe in 15 years, and while it looked a real possibility as recently as a month ago, those dreams are dwindling fast.
They will have to hope they can draw upon their excellent home form so far this season to get them out of a hole this weekend, because only Paris Saint-Germain and Nice have more points at home than Auxerre's 17.
Next up is a Lille side who are one result away from club history, because the 1-1 draw with Nantes last weekend extended their unbeaten streak to an astonishing 18 matches.
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Lille's club record is 19 games unbeaten going back over four decades, and it would be heartbreaking for them to fall narrowly short of the record, as well as potentially damaging for their top-four hopes.
Bruno Genesio's men have seemingly sat in fourth place for the entire season, just about fending off pressure from the likes of Nice and Lyon below them, but not doing enough to catch Marseille and Monaco above them.
During their 18-game unbeaten run, 12 have been in Ligue 1, but Les Dogues have won just five, with too many draws restricting their movement up a very congested league table.
While Auxerre are excellent at home, Lille love a Friday night fixture, and they have had plenty of them given their Champions League commitments this season, losing just one of their last 12 under the lights on this day.
The scheduling should favour them, and Genesio's side will need it given the fixtures they have to come in January, facing Marseille away in the Coupe, Nice in the league, and Liverpool and Feyenoord in the Champions League.
Team News
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Auxerre will have Malagasy midfielder Rayan Raveloson back from suspension here after he missed the defeat at Strasbourg last weekend, but they may be without Gabriel Osho and Kevin Danois due to injury.
Donovan Leon was also absent in goal last week, and in the defeat to Dunkerque, and the stopper will be a huge miss considering he has made an incredible 84 saves in just 17 games for club and country so far this season.
Elsewhere on the injury list, Ange Loic N'Gatta remains out for the time being, while Lasso Coulibaly will not feature again this season after an ACL tear.
The same injury will also see Lille's Tiago Santos miss the next few months, and Samuel Umtiti remains out with a knee injury of his own.
Edon Zhegrova is the key absentee for the visitors, though, as the Kosovan winger is still struggling with a groin injury, and he was joined on the treatment table by Mathias Fernandez-Pardo, who was forced off inside 10 minutes last week.
In better news, Angel Gomes returned
from a recent setback last weekend as an unused substitute and the England international will hope to get some minutes this time around.
Auxerre possible starting lineup:
De Percin; Diomande, Jubal, Akpa; Hoever, Owusu, Raveloson, Mensah; Perrin, Sinayoko, Traore
Lille possible starting lineup:
Chevalier; Meunier, Diakite, Alexsandro, Gudmundsson; Andre, Andre Gomes, Mukau; Haraldsson, David, Cabella
We say: Auxerre 0-1 Lille
Auxerre have been superb all season at home, but recent results are cause for great concern, and there will be worries that their purple patch may have abruptly come to a halt.
Simply matching the club-record unbeaten record will not be enough to satisfy the visitors, who have ambitions of breaking into the top three, especially after dropping two points last weekend, and despite missing some key players, Lille will be slight favourites.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Andrew Delaney
