All you kneed to know: The Classique!

A little history...

The Classique, Act 100! This symbolic feat has only been reached by three clubs to date: Bordeaux (107 matches), Monaco (104 matches) and Lyon (101 matches).

The results of these encounters have largely fallen in favour of the club from the capital, with 44 wins, 22 draws and 33 defeats.

Les Rouge et Bleu are on a 7 match unbeaten run at the Stade Vélodrome (5 wins and 2 draws) against Marseille, since their defeat on 27 November 2011 (0-3).

50 players - a record for Paris Saint-Germain - have worn the colours of both clubs:  Fabrice Abriel, Jérôme Alonzo, André Luiz, Jocelyn Angloma, William Ayache, Djamel Belmadi, Hatem Ben Arfa, Daniel Bravo, Sarr Boubacar, François Brisson, Zoumana Camara, Lorik Cana, Benoît Cauet, Édouard 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 Pantelic, Bernard Pardo, Cyril Pouget, Alain Roche, Jean-Pierre Tokoto, George Weah and Daniel Xuereb.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is Paris Saint-Germain's top scorer against Marseille with 11 goals to his name. He sits ahead of Edinson Cavani (7 goals) and Pedro Miguel Pauleta (6 goals).

With 18 appearances in matches between Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille, Sylvain Armand is the Parisian that has featured in the most Classiques, in front of Marco Verratti (16 matches).

The stakes...

Les Parisiens will want to come away with all three points in order to remain in touch with Lyon, who beat Strasbourg 3-0 on Saturday, and Lille.

This 100th Classique is also symbolic, Les Parisiens have only lost one match against Les Marseillais since 2011 (0-1 at the Parc des Princes on 13 September 2020), a record that spans over 22 matches between the two sides (18 wins and 3 draws) and go into this game on the back of a victory over Marseille in the Trophée des Champions at Lens last month (2-1 on 13/01/2021).

The Paris Saint-Germain forwards enjoy their matches against OM and have scored a total of 143 goals. Les Olympiens can only be beaten in that area by Saint-Étienne (158 goals), Lyon (154 goals) and Lens (146 goals).

Keys to the match...

Paris Saint-Germain will be able to look to Marquinhos, Les Rouge et Bleu's lucky charm against Marseille, who heads into the match on a run of  14 Classiques without defeat (12 wins and 2 draws). 

Kylian Mbappé could play his 150th competitive match for Paris Saint-Germain in Marseille. With 95 goals scored in Ligue 1, he is second best goalscorer still playing in the league, behind Jimmy Briand (100 goals).

Angel Di Maria has often shone in matches against Marseille: with 98 assists, the Argentine is close to the 100-mark and breaking Safet Susic's record (103 assists from 1982 until 1991).