OM-PSG: a Classic (really) at the top

For the past few seasons, unless you have been a supporter fed up with the antagonism between the two clubs from a very young age, it has been difficult to be more enthusiastic about this Ligue 1 Classic between Marseille and Paris.

Blame it just as much on the inconstancy and weaknesses of Marseille as on the Parisian stars and the difference in means - financial, therefore human - between the two formations.

To discover

• Calendar and results Ligue 1

• League 1 standings

Over time, the French football fan had become accustomed to seeing PSG dictate the law, and OM resist as best they could (often) badly.

A routine in the championship, which could be upset on Sunday (8:45 p.m., Prime Video), in a Stade-Vélodrome which has never stopped believing in it.

And who has several reasons to dream big.

Why is this THE turning point of the season?

A 6 point game.

Sometimes overused, the formula perfectly suits this shock of the 25th day, which already promises to be possibly decisive in the race for the title.

Indeed, with - only, one would be tempted to say - 5 points difference between the two teams, this meeting, in a Stade-Vélodrome which promises to be boiling, could well change the face of the championship.

Or at least its scenario, generally so clear and favorable to Parisian designs.

So far this season, no one alone from the capital club, which had nevertheless flown over the start of the exercise, carried by a found Lionel Messi and a Neymar in World Cup mode.

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Alas, precisely, the Qatari high mass passed by there and the beautiful scheduling put in place by Christophe Galtier was shattered.

To the point of allowing OM to get back into the game and feed the mad hope of overthrowing the Parisian monarch.

A success for the Olympians this Sunday could in fact allow them to come back to within two small units of the leader, and the momentum it would instill in them would have all the characteristics of a winning mistral.

But, on the contrary, a Parisian victory on Marseille soil would probably put a serious blow to Marseille's desire to be caliph instead of the caliph.

And, between the two, you will have understood it, a parity score would hardly advance the schmilblick, even if it would prove to be more favorable to the Parisian hunter than to the Marseille hunter.

Why OM can believe it

Remember beautiful things.

Especially when they are so recent that their sweet flavor still melts in your mouth.

On February 8, in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France, Marseille finally managed to put PSG on one knee to offer themselves a second victory in the last 27 confrontations between the two ancestral enemies.

Achievements signed Alexis Sanchez and Ruslan Malinovskyi were enough to extinguish Parisians who were very poor without their totem Kylian Mbappé (2-1).

Read also“With the team they have, they should win all the matches”: Tudor puts pressure on PSG

But, beyond this qualification, OM demonstrated that evening that they had the weapons, and the tactics, capable of overthrowing the opposing ogre.

With, as the main weapon of mass destruction imposed by the rigorous and demanding Igor Tudor, a very high pressing that the aesthetes of the capital hardly appreciate, more at ease facing formations that do not impose a physical challenge on them at all times. .

Nevertheless, offering a simple showdown in this area to PSG would probably not be enough, and the Croatian coach has also been able to restore momentum to the OM attacking game, very direct, very committed, which aims for immediate efficiency.

And then we must not neglect the psychological impact of success in the Coupe de France, which could have blown up a feeling of inferiority long prevailing in the minds of the Marseillais.

Since February 8, Mattéo Guendouzi and others know that they can shake up, and defeat, PSG.

And that changes everything.

Why PSG appear so vulnerable

It took a subtle free kick from Lionel Messi in stoppage time against Lille last Sunday (4-3) for PSG to get ready to play this Classic launched on a crazy series of four games... without victory.

Including three consecutive defeats straddling the Coupe de France, Ligue 1 (3-1 in Monaco) and the Champions League (0-1 at the Parc des Princes against Bayern Munich).

To summarize, since the post-World Cup recovery, Paris has lost the thread.

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From his game, his famous "MNM" - which will be presented on the banks of the Canebière shortened to the N of Neymar -, his defense, his midfield... In short, the waterways are multiplying at the same rate as injuries, and Christophe Galtier must now manage his infirmary as much as the invasive presence of a certain Luis Campos near his bench.

Still, the success snatched against Losc had the merit of avoiding a deeper crisis and restoring a semblance of strength to a team more dependent than ever on Mbappé.

But, with its inescapable number 7, PSG still knows itself capable of overthrowing mountains.

And a Marseille volcano too?