Marseille face PSG in 'le classique'
Marseille host Paris St Germain at the Velodrome for the latest 'classique'. Pacesetters PSG were usurped on Saturday night when Lyon swept past Guingamp to go top. Marseilles will rise to second provided they take all three points in what has traditionally been a heated encounter on and off the pitch. With the title in the mix, more pyrotechnics are expected.
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When Paris St Germain's players walk out onto the turf at the Velodrome on Sunday night, there'll be more at stake than just the bragging rights over 'le classique'.
Of all the fixtures in Ligue 1 in France, the clash between Marseille and PSG resounds with extra resonance. The hinterland is absorbed with big city rivalries, northern capital arrogance and southern provincial aspirations. This season, it's particularly smoky because both teams are in the title race.
Paris St Germain travel to the match knowing that victory will allow them to reclaim top spot from Lyon who racked up the pressure on both teams on Saturday night by winning 3-1 at Guingamp.
Marseille are keenly aware that all three points will take them second one point behind Lyon with seven games left.
How both sides would love a proven match winner. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has shown his worth for PSG. André-Pierre Gignac has been of sterling worth to Marseille. Of the two contenders, it's the Qatari-backed PSG that has the megabucks to lure the top names in the game. What price for a Leo Messi? Or a Cristiano Ronaldo?
The Portuguese star was in uberdrive on Sunday afternoon as Real Madrid obliterated Granada 9-1. Ronaldo scored five goals, including a first-half hat-trick, in the rout.
It was the first time that the former Manchester United star had hit such a jackpot in a game.
Sir Alex Ferguson, his one-time gaffer at United, had a turn of phrase for this stage of the season and encounters against the minnows or the mighty: squeaky bum time.
Ferguson's teams were forged with players boasting guts of iron and hearts of steel. For the Glaswegian, Ronaldo was such a man.
The PSG manager Laurent Blanc and his Marseille counterpart Marcelo Bielsa have to send players into the fray who can dictate the tempo with composure and canniness; men with the ability to be ruthlessly precise. Fragility is not an option; subsistence is futile.
Titles are won over the course of a season but moreso on hyped spring nights in early April.
PSG, Lyon and Marseille can only look over the Alps in envy at Juventus's 14-point lead at the top of Serie A. In Germany, Bayern Munich are romping home with a 10-point advantage and seven games to go.
By comparison in England, Chelsea's seven-point lead over Arsenal looks flimsy but the pacesetters have a game in hand and if they win that, then it's barely conceivable that a team led by Jose Mourinho will squander a 10-point asset.
One of Mourinho's traits has been his intensity and that feature has been in evidence in the prelude to the Marseille v PSG showdown.
The combative PSG midfielder Blaise Matuidi was full of tribal scream in an interview with the sports newspaper L'Equipe. The 27-year-old France international said he would never sign for Marseille because he had been reared in Paris.
"My heart is Parisian," he added. "It's simply something I don't see myself doing. That players leave PSG or Marseille and go to other clubs in France doesn't surprise me that can happen. But I can't see it happening for me. If I play in France I can't imagine it not being at PSG."
Earlier in the season PSG beat Marseille 2-0 at the Parc des Princes. Lucas and Edinson Cavani got the goals to clip Marseille's wings. That was when Marseille were enjoying a 14-game run at the top. Lyon have also been in the ascendance and as Marseille host PSG on Sunday, it will be Lyon hoping for a stalemate that will keep them in pole position with a half a dozen matches left of an enthralling season.
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