This week’s football program is full of interesting games, both in France and throughout Europe, but one game stands out above all others. It is about one of the biggest derbies on the Old Continent, between Olympique de Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain. Points, the title and much more are on the table, which is why all true football fans will be watching the match tonight at the Velodrome with great attention. The situation in the Ligue 1 standings before the popular Le Classique is quite simple, the Parisians are first in the standings with five points more than the second-placed Olympique, and their draw is most cheered by Monaco, which has only two points less than Marseille. Therefore, if PSG does not triumph, in the remaining 13 rounds we will see a very exciting fight for the title, which is a real rarity for French football in recent years.THIS IS LE CLASSIQUE 🔥⚪️ @OM_English 🆚 @PSG_English 🔵🇬🇧 19:45 GMT on @btsportfootball🇺🇸 14:45 EST on @beINSPORTSUSA#Ligue1UberEats | #OMPSG pic.twitter.com/uUf7MDmBI1— Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) February 21, 2023 Objectively, it didn’t seem until recently that Christophe Galtier’s team could complicate their quest for another title, because at one point they had a double-digit advantage over the competition. However, then the year 2023 came, the Parisians entered it with a defeat against Lens (3:1) and all of a sudden, the confidence went out of the locker room and never came back. They managed a win over a lower league side in the French Cup, but a championship defeat against Rennes (1:0) got them back to square one. Surely the players did not like the unnecessary trip to Saudi Arabia for an irrelevant friendly match, just to watch the duel between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The Parisians traveled to Asia after visiting Rennes, and when they returned to their championship duties, they faced another setback – against Reims (1:1). And suddenly we got an exciting championship.Madness in Paris as 32,000 PSG fans come to see their team train ahead of the Ligue 1 derby in MarseilleOlympique watch all this from their Velodrome, strung together several convincing victories and returned to the top of the table. A draw with Monaco (1:1) and then a defeat against Nice (3:1) in the local derby did not cost them too much, because PSG still has not come out of the crisis. Moreover, it was Marseille that worsened the situation in the capital and set off the alarm, since in a direct clash on February 8 in the round of 16 of the French Cup, it triumphed 2:1 with goals from Alexis Sanchez and Ruslan Malinovsky, thus leaving PSG without one of possible three trophies this season.Aguero’s big mouth: Messi’s best friend reveals his possible destination this JuneSomeone will say that the French Cup is unimportant to the rich Qataris, but the following two games showed how the defeat weakened the confidence of Galtier’s team. An easy loss to Monaco (3:1) in the championship and, worst of all, against Bayern (1:0) in the middle of Paris in the first match of the round of 16 of the Champions League put the pressure up by a hundred degrees. A win finally came against Lille, but in the 94th minute, and during that game, PSG was losing twice. They also lost the best assistant and second scorer of the team Neymar (13 goals, 11 assists) in that match, as the Brazilian sprained his ankle after a duel, so we definitely won’t see him in Le Classique. The Parisians are tight-lipped when it comes to his health, with the medical team is trying to recover the Brazilian by Wednesday, March 8, so that he can help the team in Munich against Bayern. Until then, we will certainly not see him on the field, and whether there is any hope for him to play in Germany will be known only at the beginning of next week.✨ Le mythique 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒑 𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒆̂𝒕𝒆 de @BasileBoli_ est élu 𝒑𝒍𝒖𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒅’𝒖𝒏 𝑪𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒒𝒖𝒆 𝒂̀ 𝒍’@orangevelodrome ⚽️#LeClassique | #OMPSG pic.twitter.com/ENEh5nzzij— Ligue 1 Uber Eats (@Ligue1UberEats) February 25, 2023 At least Galtier can be happy to know that he can count on Nuno Mendes, the left back, who also suffered a minor injury against Lille. The Portuguese is in competition for a duel with Marseille. Unfortunately, not Ashraf Hakimi, who tried to train with the team on Saturday, but he still hasn’t healed his back injury, so he will miss this game.Le Classique est lancé, tuez les ❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/fJvpFjHRVg— 📣 MEGA PSG (@MegaPSG_) February 24, 2023 As always, this derby will bring an atmosphere which ‘smells’ on incidents. It’s always like that when Olympique and PSG meet, because it’s a clash of two different worlds within the same country. The temperamental south, full of Arabs, has always looked with hatred towards rich Paris, and this intolerance has often been transferred to football itself. Fights between fans of these clubs are a frequent occurrence, the last mass one was in August 2020, when hooligans fought before the semi-final match of the Champions League between PSG and RB Leipzig. For years, Olympic fans were banned from traveling to the Parc des Princes, and when the ban was finally lifted in 2018, they tore up 137 seats and threw them at Parisians, while completely destroying the toilets at the capital’s stadium. Before that, in 2016, after the final of the French Cup, 30 Marseille fans were arrested, because they lit the stands of the stadium with torches and targeted PSG fans. The season before that, a bus with PSG players was also stoned. We could go back like this to 1975, when the first violent incident between these clubs was recorded, that is, the attack of Olympic hooligans on a bus full of Parisians.🚨 The Stade Velodrome is expected to undergo minor works to allow for the expansion of the stadium’s capacity.65.600 spectators are expected to attend Le Classique against PSG.(@DROIT_AU_BUT) – #TeamOM pic.twitter.com/sMkLiNxkQ1— News OM 🇬🇧 (@NewsOMInEnglish) February 16, 2023 So far, we have watched 104 derbies, if we count all the competitions, and PSG is more successful. The Parisians triumphed 47 times, Olympic on 34 occasions, while 23 matches ended in draws. However, that difference is significantly smaller if we single out only the meetings in League 1. They met a total of 86 times, in victories the Saints lead with 34:32. PSG and Olympique played their first league match this season on October 16 last year. The Saints celebrated with Neymar’s goal, after Kylian Mbappe’s assist in the last minute of the first half, while in the rest, Marseille was left with one player less due to the dismissal of Samuel Gigot.”This is a very important game for several reasons. It is a duel between teams that are close in the standings, and we are also playing against a team that we lost to in the cup a few weeks ago. I don’t believe that the champion will be decided on Sunday, there are still many matches to go, but we would welcome a win. I can’t say that we are favorites, the cup match showed that. Still, there are reasons to be optimistic. In the last few matches we played at a high level. They will be pushed forward by the fans, that’s why we have to be even better in order to triumph here” Galtier said.Shall we dance again? Tuchel close to returning to PSGMarseille coach Igor Tudor believes that the championship derby will be more difficult than the one in the cup.”We won last time, but now it will be even more difficult. Now they will be even more determined. We just want to play our game. There will be more tension, more focus on it. This time they also have Mbappe, who was injured in the cup. Such a player is particularly dangerous, especially if you leave him space. With his presence, Mbappe can make up for the absence of Neymar or another important first-team player. We will have to work to nullify their strength, while also showing quality in attack” explained Tudor.LIGUE 1 – ROUND 25FridayLille – Brest 2-1 (0-1)/Diakite 60, Alexsandro 80 – Djalo 8 og/SaturdayAngers – Olympique Lyon 1-3 (01)/Sima 87 – Mendes 38, Sarr 80, Barcola 90/Montpellier – Lens 1-1 (0-1)/Maouassa 59 – Fulgini 4/Sunday15:00: (2.24) Lorient (3.35) Auxerre (3.35)17:00: (2.45) Ajaccio (3.15) Troyes (3.40)17:00: (2.70) Clermont (3.10) Strasbourg (3.05)17:00: (3.45) Nantes (3.30) Rennes (2.35)17:00: (2.30) Reims (3.50) Toulouse (3.35)19:05: (2.14) Monaco (3.60) Nice (3.70)22:45: (2.95) Olympique Marseille (3.50) PSG (2.55)***odds are subject to change***
