All you need to know about Paris v. Lorient

A BIT OF HISTORY...

This will be the 40th competitive fixture between Paris Saint-Germain and Lorient, with the head-to-head record sitting heavily in favour of Les Parisiens, who have picked up 23 wins, seven draws and nine defeats.

On 26th September 1970, a little under 53 years ago, Paris Saint-Germain drew 0-0 with Lorient at the Stade Yves Allainmat on Matchday 5 of the Championnat National's Centre division (now Ligue 2). Along with Stade Brestois 29, FCL are the oldest of the capital club's 19 opponents in Ligue 1 this season.

It was against Les Merlus that Paris Saint-Germain played the first game of the QSI era, a 1-0 defeat at the Parc des Princes on 6th August 2011.

Since that first in 2011, the two teams have faced each other on 19 occasions in competitive fixtures, with a record of 15 wins, two draws and two defeats for Paris.

10 players have played for both clubs: Fabrice Abriel, Adil Aouchiche, Grégory Bourillon, Louis Cardiet, Fabrice Fiorèse, Kevin Gameiro, Ludovic Giuly, Christophe Jallet, Patrice Loko and Stéphane Pédron.

With eight goals to his name, Zlatan Ibrahimović is Paris Saint-Germain's top scorer against Lorient, ahead of Neymar Jr and Pedro Miguel Pauleta, who have netted five goals each. The Swede is also the only Paris player to have scored a hat trick against Les Merlus at the Parc des Princes – a feat that he achieved in a 3-1 league win on 20th March 2015.

THE STAKES...

League leaders Paris Saint-Germain still have an eight-point lead over Marseille going into Matchday 33 of Ligue 1 thanks to their three successive wins (2-0 over Nice, 3-1 over Lens and 2-1 over Angers).

Paris are still on track to achieve an unprecedented feat in the French top flight, as they have been Ligue 1 leaders since Matchday 1 and could become the first club to win the title whilst being top of the table throughout the season.

Les Parisiens are also on a fine run at the Parc des Princes, with six consecutive wins over Lorient in the league – 4-0 in 2013–2014, 3-1 in both 2014–2015 and 2015–2016, 5-0 in 2016–2017, 2-0 in 2020–2021 and 5-1 in 2021–2022 – scoring 22 goals and conceding just three in the process.

THE KEYS TO THE GAME...

The capital club have taken 75 points from their 32 games in Ligue 1 so far this season – their highest total at this stage of the competition since 2018–2019, when they had 81 points after 32 games.

Kylian Mbappé, who bagged a brace away to Angers last weekend, is now the league's outright top scorer with 22 goals. Paris's no. 7 is still on track to end up as Ligue 1's top scorer for the fifth consecutive season, thus equalling the record set by Jean-Pierre Papin from 1987–88 to 1991–92.

Gianluigi Donnarumma and Nuno Mendes are also set to make their 50th Ligue 1 appearances against Lorient.