Marseille and PSG Meet Again, Both Bruised and Both Needing It
Third hosts fifth in a derby that has lately favoured the visitors, and neither side can afford another stumble.
Can a derby between the third and fifth best teams in France still feel like the biggest game of the autumn? It can when it is this one, and when both arrive with absences, tired legs and a point to prove.
Marseille sit third on 25 points from eleven games, their form a patchy WLWDW. PSG are fifth on 20, with a WDWLL that reads worse the longer you look at it. Neither side is where it wants to be, and the recent history between them offers little comfort to the home dressing room: a 2-2 draw in March, and before that two PSG wins, 3-2 and 3-1. The visitors know how to win this fixture, even when they are not at their best.
They will have to do it without Albin Forsell, who has a pectoral strain, and Abdel Mendes, whose sprained ankle ligaments keep him out. Marseille are missing Jacques Wamba, twisted ankle, and Andreu Prieto, groin strain. The expected line-ups tell their own story: Marseille in a 4-4-2 that has served them six games running, PSG in the 4-3-3 DM Wide they have used in ten of their last twelve. Fatigue is the other opponent. Ali Dali is tired at 71%, Louis Tourenne short of match sharpness, while PSG's Billy Lasprilla is worn down to 57% and Clément Gerber is not much better at 62%.
Watch the flanks. Dali, averaging 7.35, against Diego Soto at 6.89: the full-back has the tackling, the winger the acceleration. On the other side, Ousmane Miguelgorry's pace against Alfred Balcells, who has averaged 6.5 across his last four, is a mismatch on paper and a worry in practice. Up front, Nicolás González has four goals in five games and will fancy the space behind.
One old boy adds spice: Adam Meghfour, now of Marseille, spent four seasons at PSG. Derby days have a way of finding such men. Marseille need the win to stay near the top. PSG need it to stop the slide. Nobody said it would be tidy.