Goals Galore in the South of France

Montpellier play host to Marseille in the opening round of Ligue 1 fixtures, kicking off the 2021/22 season. Both sides come into this campaign with renewed optimism for the upcoming season.

Marseille pipped Stade Rennes to the final Europa League spot, finishing 5^th last season while Montpellier finished in a respectable 8^th spot. The two most recent meetings between Montpellier and Marseille saw Marseille win 3-1 back in January, followed by a tasty 3-3 draw in the reverse fixture which saw the visitors go down to 10-men.

Attack, attack, attack!

The favourites for this tie are Marseille, and understandably so considering their impressive league finish and new-look squad. But a Marseille win is far from a given, with Montpellier proving a tricky side to beat last season with unexpected wins against Lyon and Rennes – both teams who had impressive campaigns themselves.

The visitors' issue last season was ill-discipline, with Marseille leading Ligue 1 in combined yellow and red cards. With Montpellier not exactly red-card shy last season either, this should make for quite a feisty affair to kick both sides’ seasons off.

The goals for the hosts will likely come from their two standout performers from last season. Gaetan Laborde lead their scoring charts with an impressive 16 goals, closely followed by frontman Andy Delort who found the back of the net 15 times.

Marseille will be looking towards their star man Dimitri Payet to continue his impressive form from last season, a campaign in which he grabbed 9 goals and 10 assists. Target man Arkadiusz Milik will be another focal point in the Marseille attack.

All of these attacking threats, combined with new combinations at the back for both sides should see a high scoring affair at the Stade de la Mosson.

Summer business to bear fruit

Montpellier’s big-name signing Mamadou Sakho is expected to make his debut on Sunday. The experienced French centre-back joined on a free transfer from Crystal Palace and is expected to have an instant impact at the back for the hosts.

The visitors on the other hand have made a spree of new additions. Bringing in Roma duo Pau Lopez and Cengiz Under as well as Arsenal pair Matteo Guendouzi and William Saliba all in on loan deals has bolstered this new look Marseille squad drastically.

The biggest signing for Marseille is Brazilian midfielder, Gerson from Flamengo. The 24-year-old was brought in for £20m in the summer, and it will be interesting to see if he can form a solid midfield partnership with Guendouzi. How all these additions will gel and if they can make an instant impact at Montpellier on Sunday remains to be seen, but it will make for intriguing viewing, nonetheless.

Marseille should get all three points here, but Montpellier have their own attacking threats to match the hosts. Therefore, I’m going for the goals bet with bet365!

Bet Over 2.5 goals on Bet365