Marseille vs Lyon

Stade Veldorome plays host to a handsomely-looking Ligue 1 showdown between Olympique Marseille and Olympique Lyon.

Marseille must shrug off the stress following a heartbreaking Champions League group stage elimination induced by Tottenham Hotspur’s come-from-behind 2-1 win at the Velodrome in midweek. While it looks frustrating at first glance, it could prove a blessing in disguise for out-of-sorts ‘Les Olympiens,’ who drew 2-2 at Strasbourg last time out to snap a dreadful three-game losing streak in Ligue 1. Head coach Igor Tudor needs to stem the bleeding as soon as possible to keep Marseille in the top-three race, with his side still within a three-point distance of third-place Rennes, courtesy of a stellar nine-game league start (W7, D2). However, the hosts have found it almost impossible to beat Lyon lately, picking up just one victory in their last 15 top-flight H2Hs (D6, L8).

On the other hand, Lyon eked out a 1-0 home win over Lille last weekend to make it two league wins in a row for the first time since September and maintain a seven-point deficit on the Champions League spots. New manager Laurent Blanc led his side to a 2-1 win at Montpellier on their latest Ligue 1 travel, helping ‘Les Gones’ put a dubious five-game winless away league start to bed (D1, L4). But you’d have to go back to April 2021 for the last time Lyon won back-to-back top-flight matches on hostile turf, highlighting the size of the task at hand. Defending has not been Lyon’s strong suit on the road this term, as they’ve yet to keep an away clean sheet, conceding an average of 1.83 goals per Ligue 1 trip.