A few weeks later than scheduled, Marseille and Lyon face off at the Orange Velodrome on Wednesday for the latest instalment of Choc des Olympiques in Ligue 1.
The fiery derby was originally set to take place in the final weekend of October, only for the authorities to postpone the contest in the wake of a despicable attack on the Lyon team bus.
Match preview
© Reuters
Images of a bloodied and stitched-up Fabio Grosso told the story better than any journalist could when Marseille's meeting with Lyon was initially pencilled in for October, where Les Gones' team bus came under siege from a group of Olympiens supporters en route to the stadium.
Missiles were pelted at the windows of the vehicle, leaving then-Lyon head coach Grosso with facial injuries which required hospital treatment, and the decision was taken to postpone the derby, despite Lyon owner John Textor claiming that his side wanted to continue with the clash.
No punishments have been handed down to Marseille for the disgraceful actions of their supporters just yet, and since the unsavoury incident in October, Gennaro Gattuso's side have been solid if yet unspectacular across the French top flight and Europa League.
Three wins, two draws and one defeat have been added to Marseille's notebook for 2023-24 since the start of November, although the hosts have delivered back-to-back successes in front of their own fans in recent days, triumphing against Ajax 4-3 in the Europa League before seeing off Rennes 2-0 on Sunday.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's penalty and Azzedine Ounahi's strike proved telling against Les Rouges et Noir, and while the 12th-placed Olympiens are still far from where they aspire to be in the Ligue 1 rankings, their mid-table predicament is far more favourable than Lyon's.
© Reuters
As well as being physically battered and bruised in October's harrowing bus attack, World Cup winner Grosso was forced to witness several painful displays from his Lyon crop on the field during his short tenure, which was brought to an end after just seven games last week.
Les Gones could supposedly turn to ex-Marseille head coaches Jorge Sampaoli or Igor Tudor as Grosso's potential successors, while Bruno Genesio has also been mooted as a candidate to pull the seven-time French champions out of their rut, which continued at Lens' Stade Bollaert-Delelis under the wing of Pierre Sage.
With the Lyon offence failing to fire, Irish centre-back Jake O'Brien - who scored the only goal in Lyon's solitary win this season over Rennes - took it upon himself to net an unlikely a brace versus Lens, but Przemyslaw Frankowski's own double and a Wesley Said strike saw Les Gones head home empty-handed.
Still earmarked as the favourites for demotion down to the second tier, Lyon remain rooted to the foot of the standings and have a six-point gap to make up to Strasbourg in the safety of 15th place, but four of their seven points so far in their dismal 2023-24 campaign have come on the road.
However, both of Lyon's meetings with Marseille in Choc des Olympiques last season ended with Les Gones coming out on the wrong end of the scoreline, as Les Olympiens triumphed 1-0 at the Orange Velodrome in November before marching to a 2-1 away success in April.
Team News
© Reuters
Marseille and Rennes both ended Sunday's game with just 10 men on the field, as Olympiens attacker Iliman Ndiaye was given a straight red card in the 67th minute, although the disciplinary committee are yet to decide on his punishment.
Either way, Ndiaye will sit on the naughty step for Wednesday's derby, and with Joaquin Correa also nursing an ankle injury, Vitinha may be brought in to support Aubameyang in the final third.
Correa represents one of two injury concerns for Gattuso's men at present, as Valentin Rongier will spend several more weeks recuperating from knee surgery, but Jordan Veretout could still freshen up the engine room.
Meanwhile, interim Lyon manager Sage should be working with the same troupe of players from his side's agonising loss to Lens, where midfield duo Johann Lepenant and Corentin Tolisso were missing due to knee and calf injuries respectively.
As is the case with Marseille's Rongier, Lepenant's knee injury is unlikely to clear up until February, but Tolisso should be back from a calf concern at some point this month, while goalkeeper Remy Riou represents the visitors' final fitness worry with a muscular issue.
Just a second Ligue 1 start came the way of Chelsea loanee Diego Moreira at the weekend, and the 19-year-old is primed to provide more support to captain Alexandre Lacazette, who seeks to end a five-game streak without a goal on Wednesday evening.
Marseille possible starting lineup:
Lopez; Clauss, Mbemba, Balerdi, Lodi; Kondogbia, Ounahi; Sarr, Harit, Aubameyang; Vitinha
Lyon possible starting lineup:
Lopes; Kumbedi, O'Brien, Lovren, Tagliafico; Caqueret, Alvero; Nuamah, Cherki, Moreira; Lacazette
We say: Marseille 2-0 Lyon
Assuming that Wednesday's tie goes ahead without any more instances of crowd disorder, Marseille appear destined to prolong their rivals' misery at Orange Velodrome, where goals have been relatively easy for Gattuso's men to come by in the past week.
Fatigue may set in for the Olympiens given their recent Europa League exploits too, but a managerless Lyon side whose chief goal threat is a centre-back should experience little joy in midweek.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
