Ligue 1 returns this weekend with title-hopefuls Marseille travelling to Stade Raymond-Kopa to face relegation strugglers Angers.
Venue: Stade Raymond-Kopa (Angers)
Key Statistics
Angers have conceded 18 goals in the league this season. Only Auxerre (19) have conceded more after eight rounds of games.
The hosts have kept just two clean sheets in the league this season.
Marseille are one of just two Ligue 1 sides yet to concede an away goal before the hour mark this campaign.
The visitors are unbeaten in their last three away league games (W2, D1).
They have kept consecutive away clean sheets ahead of this game.
They scored first within the first ten minutes in their last two away games
Head to head
In 15 matches between both teams, Angers have won three times while Marseille have five wins. Seven matches ended in a draw while both teams averaged 2.73 goals per match.
Latest performances in all competitions
Angers: W-W-L-L-L
Marseille: D-L-W-L-W
Angers
Angers will look to make it three league wins in a row for the first time in over two years when they welcome Marseille to Stade Raymond-Kopa this Friday.
The hosts began the season without a win in six games (D2, L4) with four of those losses coming consecutively. However, they enjoyed a memorable September as they beat both Montpellier (2-1) and Nice (1-0) consecutively, leaving them outside of the relegation zone just before the international break.
Their last game was particularly impressive as they matched Nice for possession and shots on target even though they had Sofiane Boufal controversially sent off in the 62nd minute in the game.
With the Morocco international now available for this game after his second yellow card in the game was cancelled by the league administrators, coach Gerald Baticle will undoubtedly be relieved given that Boufal has been involved in five of the SCO’s nine goals this season (G3, A2).
The signs of a positive result are there for Angers given that they have lost just one of the previous six top-flight head-to-heads held here (W1, D4). And so they will come into this tie confident of registering a third straight win here.
Possible Angers starting line-up
Yahia Fofana; Yan Valery, Cédric Hountondji, Miha Blazic, Souleyman Doumbia; Batista Mendy, Nabil Bentaleb; Sada Thioub, Adrien Hunou, Azzedine Ounahi; Abdallah Sima.
Injured: Ulrick Eneme-Ella
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Marseille
Marseille will look to get back to league action with a win when they play Angers on Friday.
The visitors have enjoyed a positive start to the season in the league having won six of their opening eight games (D2) while conceding just five goals and scoring 16 times.
However, they had a disappointing outing just before the international break as they were held to a 1-1 draw with Rennes in the game. And so they come into this game sitting in second place, two points behind early league leaders Paris Saint-Germain.
But either way, the international break came at the right time for a jaded Marseille, who had to play four games in 12 days due to their European duties, with coach Igor Tudor calling such fixture congestion “inhuman”.
Tudor will hope that this additional recovery time would help his side who are seeking to extend their current run of two-consecutive Ligue 1 away wins ‘to nil’, in which they scored first within ten minutes on both occasions.
Possible Marseille starting line-up
Pau Lopez; Chancel Mbemba, Leonardo Balerdi, Samuel Gigot; Jonathan Clauss, Matteo Guendouzi, Jordan Veretout, Sead Kolasinac; Valentin Rongier, Amine Harit, Alexis Sanchez.
Injured: Eric Bailly
Doubtful: None
Suspended: Nuno Tavares
Prediction
Angers 1-3 Marseille
