Dimitri Payet: 'Pressure on Marseille against surprising Nantes'

Dimitri Payet has expressed his surprise at Nantes's impressive return to Ligue 1 and believes that the pressure is on his Marseille side ahead of their clash.

The two teams meet at the Stade Velodrome on Friday night, with Les Canaris having the opportunity to leapfrog Les Phoceens with a victory, while Marseille remain desperate to keep pace with the Champions League hopefuls.

"When you're a newly-promoted side, you don't expect them to have such a good team so quickly," Marseille's former Nantes midfielder Payet told the press.

"The fact that they have kept their squad together and not changed too many players during the close season probably has something to do with that. The team has maintained the momentum of their promotion.

"Given the results and what's at stake, the pressure is on us. That's normal given we're at home against a side that has just come up. We need the three points, we dropped three on Tuesday."

Marseille are fourth in Ligue 1 going into the match, having suffered a last-gasp 1-0 defeat at Lille earlier this week.