the clash between Saint-Étienne and Nice at Geoffroy-guichard on tuesday evening will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. the goalless draw (0-0) in the first leg of the ligue 1/ligue 2 playoff tie was the most barren encounter in french professional football since 2022. neither side managed a single shot on target over 103 minutes of action, with Saint-Étienne and Nice combining for just 0.41 expected goals (xG) — 0.11 for the home side and 0.30 for the visitors. according to opta data, this is the lowest xG total recorded in a completed match across ligue 1, ligue 2, or their respective playoffs in the past four seasons.

only two other fixtures have come close to matching such meagerness this season: grenoble versus bastia (0.55 xG, 0-0) in september and toulouse versus strasbourg (0.56 xG, 1-0) in december. even the much-talked-about metz-brest match last december, which ended 0-1, registered a slightly higher xG total of 0.54.

for Saint-Étienne, the lack of firepower was stark. the side attempted no shots on target, a rare feat in their recent history. this has happened only twice in the last two decades: in april 2017 against Paris saint-germain (0-5) and in december 2024 against marseille (0-2), both at home. yet, defensive solidity shone through. their tally of 15 clean sheets this season places them second only to Paris saint-germain’s 18, combining both ligue 1 and ligue 2 teams.