Marseille vs PSG

Stade Velodrome forms the backdrop for a heavyweight Coupe de France round-of-16 tie between Marseille and PSG.

Marseille didn’t break a sweat as they ousted non-league Hyeres 2-0 in the opening Coupe de France round, yet they needed to play out of their skins to beat fellow Ligue 1 rivals Rennes 1-0 last time out. And while their pursuit of a first top-flight title since 2009/10 took a massive hit at the weekend as they lost 3-1 at home to Nice, a first Coupe de France triumph since 1988/89 is still on the cards. However, Igor Tudor’s men will have to snap a nightmarish five-game winless H2H run against PSG (D1, L4) if they’re to make it out to the quarter-finals for the second season on the trot. Ominously for ‘Les Olympiens,’ they’ve drawn a blank in three of their last four matches against this opposition.

As for PSG, a come-from-behind 2-1 home win over Toulouse last weekend consolidated their position at the top of the Ligue 1 table, stretching their lead at the summit to nine points. Back to Coupe de France duties after demolishing lower-league sides Chateauroux and Pays de Cassel by an aggregate score of 10-1, ‘Les Parisiens’ are hellbent on improving last season’s underwhelming last-16 elimination to Nice. Since a disappointing 1-0 league defeat at Rennes at the start of the year, Christophe Galtier’s men have gone unbeaten in four consecutive matches in domestic action (W3, D1) despite conceding precisely once in the last three.