Marseille head coach Igor Tudor knows a thing or two about overcoming early adversity to lead his side on an eye-catching unbeaten run, but that hot streak was put to an end by a managerial novice looking to make a name for himself in charge of Nice.
A clash between two in-form sides promised an entertaining finale to the latest round of Ligue 1 fixtures, but it was Didier Digard’s Nice who came up trumps, as Sofiane Diop, Gaetan Laborde and Billal Brahimi rendered Ruslan Malinovskyi’s powerful effort inconsequential.
Seeing their 10-game run without defeat come to an end is not what the doctor ordered for Marseille before a clash of the titans with PSG, but with an under-performing Lens only managing a 1-1 draw with Brest at the weekend, Les Olympiens remain second in the Ligue 1 table as attention turns to the knockouts.
Tudor’s side have posted a 2-0 win over Hyeres and a 1-0 success over Rennes to make it to the last 16 of the Coupe de France, although the former contest was marred by Eric Bailly’s inexcusable high challenge on Almike Moussa N’Diaye, hospitalising the stricken midfielder and receiving a seven-game ban for his troubles.
Ten-time winners of France’s premier cup competition, Marseille have gone 33 years without lifting the trophy aloft since beating Monaco in the 1989 final, and they have failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals since losing the 2016 showpiece match to – you guessed it – PSG.
Even with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe both watching on from the medical room, it was a day of spectacular goals at the Parc des Princes during PSG’s showdown with Toulouse, whose midfield fulcrum Branco van den Boomen opened the scoring with a smart, low free kick that caught out Gianluigi Donnarumma unawares.
However, two of the likely suspects for PSG bailed the champions out of trouble, as Achraf Hakimi unleashed a rocket into the top corner to level the scores seven minutes before the break, and a trademark Lionel Messi strike into the bottom corner sealed a nervy win for the hosts early in the second period.
Links >> Stream 1 HD Stream 2 HD Stream 3 HD Stream 4 HD
Now boasting a healthy eight-point lead at the summit of the Ligue 1 table, Christophe Galtier’s men have not exuded consistency this season, but they have run into little difficulty during their run to the last 16 of the Coupe de France.
A 3-1 beating of Chateauroux preceded a 7-0 demolition job of sixth-tier minnows Pays de Cassel – where Mbappe scored five of PSG’s goals on the day – but the 14-time Coupe de France champions were eliminated at this stage of the competition on penalties by Nice last season.
Keeping just two clean sheets in nine games since the World Cup highlights where most of the champions’ frailties have lied over the winter, but four of PSG’s last five meetings with Classique rivals Marseille have ended in victory, including a narrow 1-0 win when the bitter foes did battle in Ligue 1 in October.
