Saint-Étienne face fitness doubts for decisive Amiens clash as promotion hopes hinge on Le Mans | OneFootball

Saint-Étienne’s push for automatic promotion will be decided on Saturday, but a depleted squad faces Amiens and results elsewhere must go their way. According to L'Équipe, the third-placed side are dealing with four absences and several doubts for the final day.

Beaten in their past three league games, Saint-Étienne are no longer in control. To go up without the play-offs, Le Mans, second with a two-point lead, must fail to win at Bastia, and the Verts must beat already relegated Amiens by at least two goals at Geoffroy-Guichard.

Philippe Montanier will be without defender Chico Lamba and midfielders Florian Tardieu, Nadir El-Jamali and Mahmoud Jaber.

Captain goalkeeper Gautier Larsonneur, right-back Kévin Pedro, midfielder Aïmen Moueffek and forward Zuriko Davitashvili are all doubtful.

Centre-back Julien Le Cardinal is also a doubt, though Montanier said the player is optimistic.

The coach reflected that this has been the pattern all season, adding that victory is essential, that he always expected the race to be settled on the final day, and that he was sorry to be proved right.

Source: L'Équipe