De Zerbi’s Marseille aim to hold on to top spot in Ligue 1 | The Express Tribune

PARIS:

Marseille suffered a setback in the Champions League in midweek but are hoping to hold on to first place in Ligue 1 as they go to Lens on Saturday looking down on Paris Saint-Germain from the French summit.

It has been an outstanding start to the season for Roberto De Zerbi’s team, who lost their first outing in Ligue 1 but have won six out of seven games since then to lead the way by a point from PSG.

They have scored four goals or more on three occasions, including in a 6-2 demolition of Le Havre last weekend when Mason Greenwood netted four times.

There has also been a rare victory against great rivals PSG, while a 4-0 hammering of Ajax raised hopes of a strong run in the Champions League.

However, their aspirations of advancing to the knockout stages in Europe were dealt a blow in a 2-1 loss away to Sporting in Lisbon on Wednesday.

Chasing a sixth straight win in all competitions, the 1993 European champions led in Portugal through an Igor Paixao goal but the match hinged on the sending-off of Emerson Palmieri just before the interval.

He thought he had won his side a penalty, but the decision was overturned by VAR and the Italian ended up receiving a second booking for diving — Sporting then came back with the extra man to win the game.

“There are defeats and then there are defeats. This one should give us more pride and confidence in ourselves,” said De Zerbi, who was unhappy with the refereeing.

“We have a difficult match coming up at Lens. We need to recover quickly, both our legs and in our heads. We will need to put in a top performance.”

Lens have enjoyed a strong start to the campaign themselves, only losing to Lyon and PSG. A win will see them move above Marseille in the standings.

Pierre Sage, sacked by Lyon midway through last season despite a successful spell in charge, has made an immediate impression on the Lens bench where he has replaced Will Still.

And the man to watch on the field for Lens is Florian Thauvin, who made almost 300 appearances for Marseille between 2013 and 2021.

His performances since moving to far northern France from Udinese in the close season earned the 2018 World Cup winner a recall to the French national team earlier this month.

Player to watch: Ousmane Dembele

The Ballon d’Or winner made his first appearance since receiving the most prestigious individual award in football in midweek, and scored within three minutes of coming on as PSG hammered Bayer Leverkusen 7-2 in Germany in the Champions League.

Dembele, who had been out for more than six weeks after picking up a hamstring injury playing for France, will now hope to feature when Luis Enrique’s side go to Brest.

The 28-year-old has scored seven goals against Brest in his career, all of which came last season.

Key stats

32 – Brest have not won any of their last 32 matches against PSG in all competitions, with their last victory coming in January 1985

11 – Marseille are top of Ligue 1 after eight games for the first time since 2014, 11 years ago

9 – Joaquin Panichelli has scored nine headed goals in league football since the start of last season

Fixtures (times GMT)

Friday

Paris FC v Nantes (1845)

Saturday

Brest v Paris Saint-Germain (1500), Monaco v Toulouse (1700), Lens v Marseille (1905)

Sunday

Lille v Metz (1400), Rennes v Nice, Angers v Lorient, Auxerre v Le Havre (all 1615), Lyon v Strasbourg (1945)