🏏 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 15:00 CEST
AJ Auxerre
vs
Stade Brestois 29
3-4-3 vs 4-2-3-1
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- Auxerre sit 16th on three points from four matches, while Brest are 10th on five, so only two points separate the sides. The hosts opened with three straight defeats — 2-5 at Lens, 1-3 at home to Angers and 1-3 at Lyon — before finally getting off the mark with a 1-0 home win over Nice in round four. With Le Havre and Nice both on two points, this is very much a battle in the lower half rather than a chase of leaders Monaco (13 points).
- The numbers expose Auxerre's problem: 11 goals conceded in four games and a goal difference of -6, the worst in the 18-team division. Brest, by contrast, are level at six scored and six conceded, and their only real setback was a 0-1 home loss to Paris Saint-Germain last time out. Whether Auxerre's back three can hold up will shape the whole afternoon.
- The headline subplot is Rémy Labeau Lascary starting up front for Auxerre against the club he joined on loan in 2025. The 23-year-old centre-forward from Guadeloupe came through the Lens academy before his spell at Brest, and at 184cm his strength is his positioning in the box and the sharpness of his finishing against a defence that knows him well.
- There is a reunion on the other side too. Brest centre-back Gautier Lloris, 31 and 191cm, lists AJ Auxerre among his former clubs and returns to face them away from home. The younger brother of former France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris came through the Nice academy, and his aerial presence will be central to dealing with Auxerre's crosses.
- Auxerre's bench holds another Brest connection in Romain Faivre, the 28-year-old left-footed attacking midfielder who had two separate spells at the Breton club. His form there earned a 15 million euro move to Lyon, and he is now at Auxerre on loan from Bournemouth. If introduced, his dribbling and shooting could tilt a tight game against opponents he knows inside out.
- Tactically this is Auxerre's 3-4-3 against Brest's 4-2-3-1, and the midfield count matters. Auxerre pair 22-year-old academy graduate Kevin Danois — a ball-winner with the highest market value in the squad — with 21-year-old, 186cm Arthur Piedfort. Brest answer with Hugo Magnetti, at the club since 2018, and 24-year-old holding midfielder Joris Chotard, who made 177 Ligue 1 appearances at Montpellier and has played for France U21.
- Aerial duels should be relentless. Brest lead the line with 197cm Ludovic Ajorque, 32, a target man who won the League Cup and scored 50 goals at Strasbourg before a Bundesliga spell at Mainz. Auxerre counter with 192cm Christ Makosso, the 22-year-old Congo international named Young Player of the Year at Luton, alongside former Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe, 28.
- Out wide, Auxerre's wing-backs carry the attacking load. Fredrik Oppegard, a PSV academy product with 16 caps for Norway U21, provides accurate left-footed delivery, while 171cm Lamine Sy, a graduate of France's Clairefontaine institute, covers the right. Brest reply with 34-year-old right-back Kenny Lala, a back-to-back Greek league winner at Olympiacos, and Reims-schooled left-back Bradley Locko.
- For individual spark, watch Danny Namaso on Auxerre's left. The 26-year-old Cameroon international, born in England and developed at Reading, scored 14 goals with 10 assists for Porto's first team and likes to cut inside on his right foot. Brest mirror that with 22-year-old Senegalese winger Pathé Mboup, previously at Standard Liège and Lyon, who attacks from the left with the same inward angle.