Last weekend’s round 6 fixtures disappointed slightly, with fewer goals than we are used to in Ligue 1 and with no fixture producing a match where both teams scored. This Sunday, two sides from southern France will play in the sunny Mediterranean city of Marseille, where a strong home side is fighting for European competition with their plethora of young and experienced talent.
The home side will be Marseille, who recently won against Amiens with a quick one-two punch knockout, with the away side being Toulouse, who lost in their previous match despite being the better team over the ninety minutes. The last four encounters between the two sides have resulted in bore-draws, but surely with the number of goals, these sides are capable of conceding and scoring we are going to get fifth-time lucky?
MARSEILLE vs. TOULOUSE
3-Way: 1: Marseille -149; X: +330 Draw; 2: Toulouse +530
Spread -1: Marseille +108; Toulouse -105
Total +2.5: Over -118; Under +116
Marseille
A quickfire double salvo from forward Clinton N’Jie gave Marseille their first win in three games, defeating Amiens away from home. It took a couple of scares around their own goal before Marseille took a hold of the game, with a tight first half coming to a close just after a Florian Thauvin free-kick went just wide, teasing the away fans with what was to come. Marseille came out of the blocks in the second half with real intent, and it took just seven minutes in the second half to open the scoring as N’Jie turned in a cross into the net with his chest after the ball came off a defender and bounced up towards the ex-Tottenham forward’s body. Although there were protests of handball, on replay it was clear that it hit his chest. Marseille added a quick second as Florian Thauvin’s reverse pass found Clinton N’Jie who touched it around the keeper and finished from a tight angle; it was his fifth goal in four games.
Manager Rudi Garcia will have been relieved to have finally recovered from a harrowing defeat at Monaco, after still seeming suffering from the Monaco blues in their last game against Rennes. Good performances from N’Jie has seen him rise to third in the top goal scorer table while midfielder Florian Thauvin has also had some impressive performances. Saying that talisman Dmitri Payet has lacked something from his extraordinary talent since coming back from injury, although he has shown glimpses with one assist this season, and as they say, form is temporary, the class is permanent.
With a busy fixture list coming up, Marseille will have to strike the right balance between fitness and quality. Add to that that they will play Nice and PSG within their next four fixtures and you might think that we are looking at a make or break period for the Les Olympiens. That being said, the team as a whole should be deep enough to make changes, but with sufficient young talent to avoid making wholesale changes to the starting line-ups and sacrifice talent for energy.
Rudi Garcia will still be without striker Konstantinos Mitroglou who is yet to make a debut for Marseille as a result of an ongoing muscle injury.
Toulouse
Toulouse was unfortunate to lose after dominating for large parts of their game against Bordeaux in the Stadium Municipal, their home stadium. Jimmy Durmaz, who has scored three goals from midfield this season, went through on goal early-on in the match but was denied by an onrushing Bordeaux goalkeeper, who performed exceptionally throughout the game. Despite growing tired of continuously knocking at Bordeaux’s door, Toulouse kept coming forward, with another chance coming as Durmaz laid the ball off to teammate Andy Delort, whose effort was heading straight for the top right corner and would have gone in were it not for another fantastic save, and another save was forced when Ola Toivonen had a pop, but it was more routine for the keeper.
The second half began as the first ended with Toulouse still on the front foot, with an excellent dipping shot that was again acrobatically saved the Rennes keeper, Benoit Costil. Unfortunately for Toulouse, Marseille had the match-winning quality in their side that their opponents lacked, and won the three points with a stunning shot into the crossbar and in over the line.
Their last match against Marseille marked two games without a goal for Toulouse, although it has to be said that Toulouse was unlucky not to score with their six shots on target to Bordeaux’s three. Toulouse’s goal issues have not been long-standing, with Jimmy Durmaz excelling in the scoring department in particular, although forward Andy Delort will have to be more clinical as he always seems to have chances that he often squanders when he is in a good position to score. Despite Delort’s lack of cutting edge, he is Toulouse’s highest scoring forward with just one goal, only highlighting the loss of Danish forward Martin Braithwaite who left to Middlesborough over the summer.
Toulouse’s goalless run has found them in 13th position, and they will have a tough time improving on that placement in their next game. Following that, they have three big fixtures against teams that will be also hoping for a mid-table finish in Guingamp, Amiens SC, and Angers. A couple of wins out of their next four could really be a springboard for success for the rest of the season, but a couple of losses could spell real trouble for the one-time Coupe de France winners.
Manager Pascal Dupraz will have a full squad for Sunday’s match.
Marseille vs. Toulouse- MATCH PREDICTION
With the two sides’ previous four meetings ending in low-scoring draws, including two nil-nil’s in the last season campaign, you would have to say that a tight draw with few goals is the most likely scenario on Sunday evening. However, both teams have been involved with lots of high-scoring games this season, with twenty goals scored in Toulouse’s first six games and nineteen in Marseille’s first six games.
With such conflicting statistics, I would look towards form and quality for a better indication, both in which Marseille has the upper hand in with international talents such as Dmitri Payet, Adil Rami, and Clinton N’Jie; therefore, it is hard to imagine a less than watertight Toulouse defense dealing with their opponent’s attacks.
Additionally, Marseille has the home advantage, so with all things considered I would recommend going for a simple, but close, Marseille win.
MY PICK: Marseille to WIN (-149)
