Preview: Marseille vs. Monaco - prediction, team news, lineups

Marseille will be looking to recover from their recent Champions League exit when they welcome Monaco to the Orange Velodrome for a mouth-watering showdown in Ligue 1.

The two French powerhouses are only separated by a solitary point in the table, with Marseille - who have two games in hand - in fourth, while Monaco sit fifth.

Match preview

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Despite sweeping aside the competition in the league in recent weeks, Marseille have just not been able to hack it on the biggest stage of them all.

Andre Villas-Boas's men travelled to Manchester City with a spot in the Europa League still a possibility, but Pep Guardiola promised to put out a strong team for their dead rubber and he did just that, with Marseille succumbing to a 3-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium.

Ferran Torres and Sergio Aguero were both on target while Alvaro Gonzalez also turned into his own net in the second half, with Dimitri Payet seeing a first-half strike ruled out for offside, and that result confirmed Marseille's fourth-placed finish and a premature end to their Champions League campaign.

However, Les Olympiens have fared much better domestically and are the only team in the French top flight to have won their last five league games on the bounce - a run of form which sees them sit just four points adrift of current leaders Paris Saint-Germain with two games in hand.

Villas-Boas's men have not tasted defeat in Ligue 1 since September and cruised to a 2-0 win at Nimes in their most recent top-flight outing, with the two Olympiens frontmen in Dario Benedetto and Valere Germain both notching up goals in that one.

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With Marseille taking 15 points from a possible 15 in their last five matches, Monaco were determined to follow suit when they travelled to another high-flying side in Lille in last weekend's pick of the games.

Niko Kovac's men had strung together a four-game winning run before their showdown with Les Dogues, who ended up scraping a narrow 2-1 win on their own turf thanks to goals from Jonathan David and the much-coveted Yusuf Yazici.

Pietro Pellegri came off the bench to net his first goal of the season in the dying embers, but the 19-year-old's strike was a mere consolation as Monaco lost ground on the top two at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.

A victory for Marseille in this encounter could see Les Olympiens leapfrog Lille and Lyon into second should both teams suffer defeat this weekend, and Monaco are also able to climb three places with three points at the Orange Velodrome, but the 18 goals that Les Monegasques have already shipped are doing them no favours with regards to goal difference.

Monaco marched to a 2-1 triumph when the sides met most recently in last season's Coupe de la Ligue, and Marseille have not tasted victory on their own turf against Les Monegasques since the 2014-15 campaign.

Marseille Ligue 1 form: DWWWWW Marseille form (all competitions): WLWWWL

Monaco Ligue 1 form: LWWWWL

Team News

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Marseille left-back Jordan Amavi played no part against City after sustaining a muscular injury, and the defender will not recover in time for this one either.

Yuto Nagatomo will deputise on the left-hand side again after starting at the Etihad, while Benedetto, Valentin Rongier and Duje Caleta-Car are all expected to return to the starting XI.

However, Villas-Boas himself will watch this one from the stands after being sent off for protesting an Amavi booking in last weekend's win at Nimes, and the Olympiens manager will be joined by Payet, who is suspended following an accumulation of bookings.

As for Monaco, Vito Mannone is set to continue in between the sticks as Benjamin Lecomte recovers from a broken hand, with Kovac's number one looking set to remain out of action until 2021.

Aleksandr Golovin is back in training after a serious hamstring injury but the trip to the Orange Velodrome may come too soon for the Russia international.

Djibril Sidibe is not too far away from a return after a calf problem, but the right-back would struggle to displace Ruben Aguilar, with Kovac potentially tempted to stick with the same XI from last week's loss to Lille.

Marseille possible starting lineup: Mandanda; Sakai, Gonzalez, Caleta-Car, Nagatomo; Kamara, Rongier, Sanson; Cuisance; Thauvin, Benedetto

Monaco possible starting lineup: Mannone; Aguilar, Disasi, Badiashile, Henrique; Martins, Fofana, Tchouameni, Diop; Ben Yedder, Volland

We say: Marseille 2-1 Monaco

Monoco's away form is actually rather poor, with Les Monegasques suffering defeat in four of their last five matches on the road, and Wissam Ben Yedder is not quite back to his best yet after recovering from coronavirus. Marseille's domestic dominance has not been hampered by their continental woes, and while Villas-Boas's men have struggled to overcome Monaco at the Orange Velodrome in recent years, we expect Les Olympiens to take the spoils in this highly-anticipated battle.

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