The weekend's Ligue 1 action kicks off on Friday evening as Marseille welcome Angers to the Orange Velodrome looking to recover from their disappointing loss during the week.
The hosts missed the opportunity to go second after throwing away a lead on Tuesday, whilst their upcoming opponents remain in their perennial mid-table spot.
Match preview
© Reuters
Marseille will have to put the frustration of mid-week behind them, after letting a one-goal lead slip in their rescheduled matchday-14 game away at Lyon.
The visitors took the lead through Matteo Guendouzi in an empty Groupama Stadium - with the match played behind closed doors after having been abandoned in November when Dimitri Payet was hit by a bottle - and would hold onto it for over an hour.
However, Xherdan Shaqiri's second goal for Les Gones and an 89th-minute winner from substitute Moussa Dembele turned the match on its head and saw OM pass up the chance to move above their rivals for best of the rest, Nice.
Their faint hopes of a title charge continue to slip away, with a 13-point gap now to runaway leaders Paris Saint-Germain, but they retain a comfortable gap of five points back to fourth place and will try once again to prise second spot away from Les Aiglons on Friday.
Jorge Sampaoli's side will have a fair chance to bounce back against a team unable to break out of mid-table mediocrity.
© Reuters
Since returning to the top flight in 2015, Angers have finished 9th, 12th, 14th, 13th, 10th and 13th again in the last six seasons, and appear on course for another middling finish this campaign.
SCO are currently sat 12th in the standings, with memories of their promising early-season form - which saw them briefly challenging for the European spots - fading by the week.
Their recent form has, in fact, been somewhat alarming, with just one win and three losses in their last five league games, and an embarrassing exit from the Coupe de France at the hands of fifth-tier Linas-Montlhery.
Last weekend saw another poor defeat - this time, a Batista Mendy own goal allowing bottom side Saint-Etienne to end a run of seven consecutive losses in the league with a 1-0 win.
Gerald Baticle does have one positive to focus on, however, thanks to Angers' surprisingly strong record against Les Olympiens, having won one and drawn two of their previous four encounters.
- W
- D
- W
- D
- W
- L
- W
- W
- D
- W
- W
- L
- W
- L
- L
- D
- W
- L
- L
- L
- L
- D
- W
- L
Team News
© Reuters
Marseille's new signings Sead Kolasinac and Cedric Bakambu will now be available, having not been registered in time for Tuesday's game, but are unlikely to break into the starting XI just yet.
Sampaoli will have to do without Pape Gueye and Bamba Dieng, however, who are both still away on international duty with Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Gerson has also been with his national side for the South American qualifiers but may be back in time and did not feature in Brazil's 4-0 win over Paraguay.
Sofiane Boufal and Azzedine Ounahi should return to the Angers starting lineup after Morocco's AFCON exit - as will Souleyman Doumbia, after completing his suspension - but Enzo Ebosse and Stephane Bahoken remain with Cameroon.
Bilal Brahimi has departed for Nice, whilst Dzenit Hajdarevic and Marin Jakolis were January signings.
Marseille possible starting lineup:
Lopez; Lirola, Saliba, Caleta-Car, Peres; Guendouzi, Kamara, Rongier; Under, Payet, Henrique
Angers possible starting lineup:
Petkovic; Mendy, Manceau, Traore; Pereira Lage, Ounahi, Mangani, Fulgini, Doumbia; Jakolis, Boufal
We say: Marseille 2-0 Angers
Whilst their recent form against Angers is surprisingly poor, the extra quality in the Marseille squad should see them return to winning ways, so we are backing them for a comfortable 2-0 victory on Friday evening.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Marseille win with a probability of 65.39%. A draw had a probability of 21.7% and a win for Angers had a probability of 12.94%.
The most likely scoreline for a Marseille win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.89%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (13.72%) and 2-1 (9.23%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.01%), while for an Angers win it was 0-1 (5.44%). The actual scoreline of 5-2 was predicted with a 0.3% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Marseille would win this match.
