Olympique de Marseille Vs FC Girondins de Bordeaux – French Ligue 1 preview
Stade Velodrome, Marseille will see 2010 Ligue 1 champions Olympique de Marseille play host to struggling FC Girondins de Bordeaux in round 16 of the 2011/2012 Ligue 1 Championelle.
Two giants with two different missions
In the 2009/2010 Ligue 1 campaign, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Olympique-de-Marseille-c40127 and Bordeaux matched eachother blow to blow in a bid to lift the Ligue 1 Championelle. However, in the end it was a Didier Deschamps led Marseille that prevailed. In the previous season, it was Laurent
Blanc who led Bordeaux to Ligue 1 glory.
However, things have certainly changed a lot for the two clubs since the 2010/2011 campaign. Marseille after finishing second in the 2010/2011 campaign made a poor start to the new campaign while Bordeaux after a poor end to the last campaign are now mired
in a position that the club has rarely been seen at.
Marseille however, have shown signs of recovery and are now in seventh place in the Ligue 1 standings. Bordeaux on the other hand, are stuck in 12th place in the Ligue 1 standings and are just five points clear of the dreaded relegation zone.
Last Friday’s 2-1 victory over Caen was Marseille’s second consecutive win in the league and Deschamps is now aiming to continue the club’s recovery.
Furthermore, a historic 3-2 win over Borussia Dortmund at the Signal Iduna Park in their final group game of the UEFA Champions League would certainly add to their confidence.
Les Phoceens were losing 2-0 to the Borussians but three goals in the second half proved to be enough for Marseille to make it through to the knockout phases of the Champions League much to the surprise of many football experts.
While talking about the win over the German champions, Deschamps said, “We’ve put in a great team performance and kept believing right to the end. This game will mark the history of OM. I’m proud that we’ve qualified for the last 16 for the second consecutive
year. It’s a great achievement.”
Tough task for Les Girondins
Bordeaux would certainly be feeling the pressure ahead of the game against Marseille. Stats are not on the side of the Aquitaine club either. In 48 games at the Stade Velodrome, Bordeaux have won just five times and judging by their recent form, it seems
very unlikely that Bordeaux would make it six in 49 attempts.
However, Bordeaux should take heart from the fact that they have indeed done well in their last two games. Last week, Les Girondins beat Nancy Lorraine 2-0 thanks to goals from captain Jaroslav Plasil and defender http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Henrique-c16069.
However, Plasil has warned his teammates that they will be facing a tough team at the Stade Velodrome. “It’s not because we have won two games that everything is settled. We’ve got a big game coming up at Marseille. We’ll have to see where we stand after
that,” said the Czech international.
Team News
Marseille
Loic Remy played against Dortmund despite missing the win over Caen due to an ankle injury but is expected to spearhead the attack for Les Phoceens. Gignac is out for atleast six weeks after yet another injury. After seeing his third yellow card in the win
over Caen, star winger Andre Ayew will miss the crunch game.
Bordeaux
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Bellion-c10434 could be rested to give a chance to Modeste.
Predictions
With Marseille recording a historic win over the German champions and finally showing their true colours, Bordeaux will certainly find it hard to get anything out of Marseille at Stade Velodrome where they have won just five games.
Predicted final score: Marseille 2-0 Bordeaux
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