Can Sochaux's wings carry France's hopes in Oviedo?

What is at stake in Oviedo on 11 December is not merely a night of European football. For Sochaux-Montbéliard, it is the chance to make the wide game count while the group is still open; for Oviedo, it is a way of measuring themselves against a side that has looked more comfortable in this competition than they have. The Spanish club's supporters, who have watched their team struggle at home, will treat a French visitor as an occasion rather than a formality.

Sochaux arrive with a recognisable shape: the 4-2-3-1 with a holding pair and two wide men pushed high, used in all twelve of their recent matches. It has served them at 1.5 points a game and produced a clear chance roughly every hour. Against the same shape, though, their record is thinner: three games, one win, one goal. Oviedo's own 4-2-3-1 has yielded little at home, and against this formation they have taken 0.75 points a game and conceded chances more often than they made them. The system is shared; the confidence is not.

Both benches are short. Oviedo lose Alberto to a hip injury; Sochaux are without Jesús Reyes, who has a sports hernia, and Brian, whose hamstring is torn. Fatigue is the quieter problem: Diogo Antunes is tired for the hosts, while Roee Alon, Tomás Samios and Vincent Nurudeen carry heavy legs for the visitors. In a match of fine margins, that matters.

The duels are on the flanks. Roger Maah, averaging 6.83, meets Jesús Fuentes at 6.69; Javier, at 6.98, faces Miguel Ángel Ureña at 6.7; and on the other side Guillaume Bruyere, 6.98, tests Isidre Jou, 6.81, while Mathieu Atangana, 6.88, takes on David Escrich, 6.82. Atangana made five clear chances in his last five games and Bruyere scored three; Escrich, for his part, has made four clear chances in four. In the air, Diogo Antunes will find Diego taller and stronger. The last meeting, in September 2061, finished 2-2. Another draw would not surprise; a French win would say more.