Friday Football Tips: Tasty game on menu in France

St Etienne v Troyes
Friday 18 March, 20:00
Live on BT Sport Extra 1 and Betfair Live Video

There's certainly potential for Friday's Ligue 1 game to get a bit tasty.

This is a massive six-pointer at the bottom of the table with Troyes just two points ahead of St Etienne, who occupy the relegation play-off spot ahead of kick-off.

Both sides are among the top six most-fouled teams in Ligue 1. On the other side of the ball, only four teams have committed more fouls than St Etienne, while Troyes also sit in the top half of that particular list.

Cards punters will perhaps be a little put off by the referee - Romain Lissorgue is averaging only three yellows per game.

However, that statistic masks the fact that he's also produced seven reds in his 12 games this season and that immediately makes 7/2 about another red card in a match of this magnitude look big.

For the record, both of these teams have seen four red cards this season. Seven of Troyes' 28 games have featured a sending-off, while five of St Etienne's 28 also have.

Meanwhile, the ref's yellow stats are responsible for some chunky 'shown a card' prices and one I can't resist is the 11/2 being dangled about Troyes midfielder Florian Tardieu.

His side's most frequent tackler, Tardieu has collected five cards in 13 starts since returning from injury in November.

And if that data sample is too small, look back at last season's nine cards in 34 games and 2019/20's seven in 26.

Both prices make appeal so let's split the stake evenly between the two. A red for Tardieu would be nice...

Friday cheat sheet: All the best bets in one place!