Owner of a much bigger investment than all its rivals in France, Paris Saint-Germain appears like favorite franc in analyzes against any of the teams of Ligue 1. The fingers of one of the hands are enough to enumerate the few opponents with real chances of defeat the capital team. Olympique Marseille, who are part of this short relationship, are the opponents of the powerful undefeated PSG on Sunday, October 22. At the Vélodrome stadium in Marseille, the game closes the tenth round of the French Championship 2017/2018 from 17h (Brasília time).
Recent Olympique performance
Quite traditional and a dome of a huge crowd in France, Olympique has been for many years the most important club in the country. A corruption scandal involving the purchase of referees ended this hegemony, promoted changes of owners and made the team to assume the role of supporting in Ligue 1.
Since last season, however, new investments have begun to be made. Nothing close to PSG, but enough for the club to improve its status. Through the 2016/2017 edition of Ligue 1, he has obtained a place in the current Europa League and is showing signs of being able to fly higher.
With 17 points (five wins, two draws and two losses), he closed the ninth round in fourth place with only two fewer than Monaco, runner-up. According to the current standards of the French Championship the runners-up, which gives direct place in the group stage of the Champions League, is the maximum that can be reached by the rivals of the powerful PSG.
However, for this, Olympique must stop failing before rivals technically quite inferior as it did in the ninth round. Against Strasbourg, who fight against relegation, only drew 3 to 3 after having been twice in advantage on the scoreboard. Equality ended up being welcome as the locals made it 29 minutes into the final and Marseille were only able to get their third goal in the 43rd minute through Greek Mitroglou, one of the reinforcements hired this season.
The current form of PSG
While Olympique stumbled, Paris Saint-Germain gave in the previous round a lesson in how to impose their technical quality right on the mark. After staying almost two weeks without training for giving much of his players for their national teams vying for the qualifiers for the Russian World Cup 2018, the team from the capital struggled against Dijon that, like the Strasbourg, simply fight to avoid relegation. He achieved the victory, in the opponent’s field, already in the second stage. While the rival defenders focused their attention on the major stars of the PSG, the supporting Meunier, who had also made the first goal, had the decisive ball into the opponent’s net.
The victory led the PSG to reach 25 (eight wins and one losses) of the 27 points played. Even with 29 rounds to go, it is well known that the Ligue 1 2017/2018 season cup goes to the Paris team’s collection. The only question is how far in advance the conquest will be mathematically ‘closed’.
An even greater signal of strength from PSG was given a few days later, when players had time to better recovery from travel and play in the playoffs. Against Anderlecht, Belgium, Wednesday, October 18, the French thrashed by 4-0 in a match for the third round of the group stage of the Champions League. With 100% use, they were very close to achieving the classification for the round of 16. This can happen with up to two rounds in advance.
The match also marked the return of Edinson Cavani. The Uruguayan returned injured from the period in which he was available to his selection and did not participate in the match in Dijon. He did not make it to the final in Anderlecht. He left the pitch in the 29th minute of the final, but not before scoring a goal.
To face Olympique the coach Unai Emery will have practically all his cast. The only doubt is in relation to the Brazilian defender Thiago Silva, another who came back injured in the qualifying period. With muscle damage he should be reexamined so that he knows if he can be at his disposal. There is a major concern, since the PSG shows have more resources to form its defense, the meanest in Ligue 1 with six goals conceded in nine games.
History of the bouts between Olympique de Marseille and PSG
There are already 14 meetings in which Olympique failed to overcome PSG. In this series, started in 2012, were 11 victories of the Parisian team and a draw.
PREDICTION: PSG win @ 1.40
