The 2012 Ligue 1 champions Montpellier face current title contenders Monaco in the first match of the second part of league campaign in France.

The title-winning season now looks a distant past for Paillade, who are languishing in the danger zone following the disappointing start to the season.

Montpellier clearly have more potential than they are showing, but unless they start winning soon, Rolland Courbis’ side will become serious relegation contenders.

La Paillade do sit three points above the bottom three, but they have little reason for optimism having failed to win any of their last ten league fixtures.

This basically means they have no choice but to try and end the barren run against star-studded Monaco, with home win available at 5.00 (4/1).

Having scored on his debut, January signing M’Baye Niang could start the Monaco clash, but Karim Ait-Fana, Gary Bokaly and Djamel Bakar are not yet ready to return.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Jourdren – Deplagne, Hilton, El Kaoutari, Congre – Sanson, Stambouli, Marveaux, Cabella – Montano, Niang.

In spite of the heavy summer recruitment, Monaco did brilliantly to keep up with reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain and they remain mere three points behind their title rivals in the standings.

The Principality club missed an excellent chance to further close the gap as they lost at home to Valenciennes ahead of the winter break, although they were very unfortunate not to have picked up maximum points.

Monaco returned to winning ways as they defeated minnows Vannes in Coupe de France, and they will attempt to see off struggling Montpellier as well.

Having won last three league matches on the road without conceding a single goal, Claudio Ranieri’s men are 1.88 (8/9) favourites to win at Stade de la Mosson.

Anthony Martial, Nacer Barazite and Nabil Dirar are out injured, but there are no fresh injuries for the Italian coach.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-1-2): Subasic – Raggi, Carvalho, Abidal, Kurzawa – Moutinho, Toulalan, Obbadi – Rodriguez – Falcao, Riviere.