The match and the stands: Marseille-Lens
Enthusiastic since the start of the season, but slowed down on the last day, OM (2e ) and the lens (4e ) meet on Sunday at the Vélodrome for a top-ranking duel (8:45 p.m.).
Marseille, runner-up to Paris at seven points, but with one game less, stalled in Angers (0-0), where the meeting was followed by incidents between Olympian and Angevin supporters. RC Lens (4e , two points from OM), who advised his supporters not to go to Marseille after the excesses during the Lens-Lille derby and during Angers-OM, remains on a setback in Strasbourg (1-0).
Facing the Blood and Gold, OM coach Jorge Sampaoli will still be deprived of Polish striker Arkadiusz Milik, hit to a knee at the end of last season and too close to be included in the group.
A match, which we hope will only be the theater of football for the players, and not yet of an eruption of supporters on the pitch. If the conflicts between ultras are not new, in the space of a month, four Ligue 1 matches were marked by incidents, two of which on Wednesday: the stumbling of a bus of Bordeaux fans on the sidelines of the match in Montpellier and big confrontations between the ultras of Angers and OM. The match of this Sunday evening between the Marseillais and the Lensois will therefore logically be under very high surveillance.
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The player: Achraf Hakimi
Still deprived of Messi, who is recovering from a contusion to his left knee, Paris will perhaps rely again on another of his recruits, Achraf Hakimi, against Montpellier (10e ) Saturday (9 p.m.).
Without the “Pulga”, without Sergio Ramos still in recovery, with a disappointing Georginio Wijnaldum and a Gianluigi Donnarumma used sparingly, the Moroccan is for the moment the very good pick of the summer transfer window in Paris.
The very offensive 22-year-old right-back, who arrived for 60 million from Inter Milan, scored three goals in L1 under his new colors. His double Wednesday on the lawn of Metz allowed PSG to snatch victory on the wire (2-1).
The right-back, trained at Real and passed through Dortmund, prefers to put things into perspective when presented as the best in his current position. “No, I don’t know …” he laughs in an interview to appear this weekend in The Magazine Team. “Let’s say that I work a lot to be the best possible”, adds the one whose idol is the Brazilian left side Marcelo.
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The number: the Greens, the worst start in 33 years
Three points in seven days, no victory, four defeats and fourteen goals conceded: Saint-Etienne made his worst start since the 1988-1989 season.
Eleventh last year, the Greens are currently in the penultimate place in the standings, ahead of Messins only on goal difference.
If Claude Puel’s team showed more desire and played bad luck (3 posts) in Monaco, it was severely bowed to Louis-II (3-1), weighed down by the early expulsion of his goalkeeper Etienne Green (33e ).
Denis Bouanga’s teammates will try to finally launch their season against Nice (7e ) Saturday (5 p.m.), ambitious team of the championship which remains however on a setback in Lorient (1-0).
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