Evian Thonon Gaillard vs Montpellier preview - No love lost for Nsikulu

Evian striker Clarck Nsikulu insists there will be no love lost between him and former team-mate Kevin Berigaud when his side host Montpellier in Ligue 1 on Saturday.

Berigaud signed for Montpellier last summer having spent nine years at Evian and made more than 150 appearances for the club.

The forward opened his Montpellier account against his former club in a 2-0 victory in November and Nsikulu says that cannot be allowed to happen again this weekend.

"It's true that he scored his first goal against us. It hurt us because we lost the match," Nsikulu told the official Evian website.

"I think it will be a special moment for him because he spent a lot of time here and has done much good to the team.

"I hope it will work out for him in Montpellier but on Saturday he will not score. We need to win.

"There will be no special treatment. We all appreciate his contribution to Evian but when we get back on the field, there are no more friends."

Evian are desperate for victory as they sit 17th, only three points above the relegation places following two consecutive defeats.

At the opposite end of the table, Montpellier are still in the hunt for the European places after bouncing back from a 5-1 defeat to Lyon with a 3-1 win over Reims last time out.

"Despite the heavy defeat against Lyon, Montpellier are a very strong team at the moment," Nsikulu said.

"In particular they rely on some very good young players. It will not be easy. For us, we have to give everything to try to win.

"We were on a good run of three wins but the last two losses hurt us. The morale is still high.

"We will try to stop this bad spiral starting again at home."