Soccer France Ligue 1 26 February 2023

Marseille vs Paris SG - Match Preview

The top-two teams of Ligue 1 will collide this weekend in an event marked in the calendars by all French football fans as Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain do battle in the 87th edition of ‘Le Classique’ in Ligue 1. Starting this round five points away from their fiercest rivals, the Olympians are in good form at the right time, with just one loss in 14 competitive matches (W12, D1), and the incentive of reviving interest in the Ligue 1 title race with a win!

Marseille’s fans are dreaming of their first title since 2009/10, and the visit of PSG is perhaps timely after seeing Marseille secure a 2-1 victory against them at the Orange Vélodrome as recently as two weeks ago in the French Cup! Manager Igor Tudor will have to do without two key defenders on this occasion though, with Chancel Mbemba suspended and Samuel Gigot not expected to feature, so this may not be so straightforward.

After three consecutive losses in all competitions for only the third time in the Qatari era, PSG bounced back with a breathtaking 4-3 home win against Lille in Ligue 1 last weekend, despite sustaining a 3-2 deficit until the 87th minute! All was not perfect and their Marseille-born coach Christophe Galtier lamented his side’s “lack of concentration” when they were leading 2-0 after only 17 minutes of play on Sunday.

The visitors bring some poor away league form to Marseille (W1, L3), and notably as far as this match is concerned, each of these three losses came against teams sitting in the top five ahead of this round. Now looking to avoid their first run of consecutive away H2H losses in more than ten years, the Parisians will have to do without the support of their fans, as the Ministry of the Interior has banned them from travelling to Marseille due to fan trouble in recent H2Hs.

📋 Players to watch: Atalanta loanee Ruslan Malinovskyi has scored in the 55th-60th minute period in Marseille’s previous two home outings. With Neymar injured, Kylian Mbappé will shoulder some extra responsibility, and he would tie Edinson Cavani (200 goals) as PSG’s all-time top scorer with a brace here.

⚡ Hot streak: The last seven top-flight H2Hs have seen the half-time result replicated at full-time.