Ligue 1 belter to finish the weekend
Marseille take on Paris Saint-Germain in the biggest match in French football on Sunday evening in aiming to re-ignite the title race in Ligue 1.
OM are five points behind PSG at the top of the division and will be excited by the prospect of cutting that gap to two points.
Marseille are not competing in European competition in the remainder of the season having finished bottom of their Champions League group and that could help them, if the same cannot be said for the Parisians at the end of their last 16 tie with Bayern Munich, currently 1-0 down.
Amine Harit and Samuel Gigot will miss out for the hosts, while Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Neymar, Nordi Mukiele and Renato Sanches are sidelined for Christophe Galtier’s side.
Process
Marseille have overperformed in front of goal so far this season and do not have an attacking process that would suggest they are capable of competing for the league title.
Igor Tudor’s men are averaging two goals per game in Ligue 1 this season, despite only creating chances equating to 1.64 expected goals (xG) for per game.
However, the context for this fixture suggests that motivation levels will be through the roof and they do have the attacking talent to hurt the Parisians, having already beaten them in the Coupe De France at the Stade Velodrome this month.
PSG have posted 2.06 xGF per game so far this season and Kylian Mbappe is close to reaching full fitness.
Galtier is over-reliant on Mbappe, but he is of the quality that that often does not matter, just look at the World Cup final for example.
Goals?
The goal expectancy is already quite high for this fixture, but I am expecting fireworks, an absolute cracker to finish the weekend with a chance that the hosts strike some fear into PSG at the summit.
Marseille have scored in all of their last 17.
Marseille have conceded in five of ten.
Marseille have seen both teams score in five of ten.
Marseille have seen over 2.5 goals in four of ten.
PSG have scored in eight of ten.
PSG have conceded in eight of ten.
PSG have seen both teams score in six of ten.
PSG have seen over 2.5 goals in six of ten.
