All you need to know about Marseille v. Paris
The history, the stakes and the keys to the game! Find out all you need to know ahead of the game against Olympique de Marseille on Matchday 25 of Ligue 1, at 20:45 CET this evening at the Orange Vélodrome.
A BIT OF HISTORY...
Le Classique between Paris and Marseille, Act 105! Only five other clubs have joined Marseille in reaching the symbolic milestone of 100 games against Paris: Bordeaux and Monaco (110 games each), Lyon (105 games), Nantes (104 games) and Lille (100 games).
When it comes to direct confrontations, the head-to-head record is in favour of the capital club, with 47 wins, 23 draws and 34 losses.
Zlatan Ibrahimović is Paris's top scorer against OM with 11 goals scored, ahead of Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappé (seven goals each) as well as Pedro Miguel Pauleta (six goals).
50 players – a record when it comes to Paris Saint-Germain – have played for both clubs: Fabrice Abriel, Jérôme Alonzo, André Luiz Moreira, Jocelyn Angloma, William Ayache, Djamel Belmadi, Hatem Ben Arfa, Daniel Bravo, Sarr Boubacar, François Brisson, Zoumana Camara, Lorik Cana, Benoit Cauet, Edouard Cissé, Patrick Colleter, Lassana Diarra, Stéphane Dalmat, Marcel De Falco, Frédéric Déhu, Jean-Pierre Destrumelle, Kaba Diawara, Jean Djorkaeff, Jean-Pierre Dogliani, Fabrice Fiorèse, Laurent Fournier, Bruno Germain, Xavier Gravelaine, Gabriel Heinze, Thierry Laurey, Jean-Louis Leonetti, Yvon Le Roux, Jérôme Leroy, Claude Lowitz, Peter Luccin, Peguy Luyindula, Claude Makélélé, Florian Maurice, Modeste M’Bami, Fabrice Moreau, Michel N’Gom, Bruno Ngotty, Pascal Nouma, Jacki Novi, Ilija Pantelić, Bernard Pardo, Cyril Pouget, Alain Roche, Jean-Pierre Tokoto, George Weah and Daniel Xuereb. Note: Mattéo Guendouzi, who was on Paris's books from 2005 to 2014, and Amine Harit, who was a Rouge et Bleu player during the 2007–08 season, never featured for PSG's first team.
THE STAKES...
Paris Saint-Germain got back to winning ways in the league last Sunday thanks to their 4-3 victory over Lille and still have a five-point lead over their opponents for the evening, second-placed Marseille.
Paris are also still in the running to achieve an unprecedented feat in the history of French football: finishing the 38-game season having been top for the entirety of it.
Les Rouge et Bleu are on a run of nine games without defeat away to Marseille in Ligue 1, with six wins and three draws since their 3-0 loss there on 27th November 2011.
Paris's defence have also managed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last three games away to Marseille. The last OM player to score against them at the Vélodrome was Florian Thauvin, in the 2-2 draw on 22nd October 2017.
THE KEYS TO THE GAME...
Kylian Mbappé has now scored 198 goals across all competitions, leaving him just two goals behind the club's all-time top scorer in competitive fixtures, Edinson Cavani, with 200 goals.
Paris's no. 7 has scored at least once in six games against Marseille in the league – a record for a Rouge et Bleu player, ahead of Cavani and Ibrahimović (five games).
Marquinhos is set to reach 20 appearances against Marseille, with the Paris captain having come out on top against OM on 15 occasions, with three draws and just one defeat in 19 games.
Marco Verratti, meanwhile, holds the club record for most appearances against Marseille, having featured in 21 Classiques, with a record of 15 wins, four draws and two losses.
Finally, Paris Saint-Germain have scored 149 goals in competitive fixtures against Marseille, with just four clubs having conceded more against Les Parisiens: Saint-Étienne (167 goals), Lyon (162 goals), Nantes (153 goals) and Lens (151 goals).