Marseille vs Strasbourg

Marseille will be hoping to maintain a steady hold of their spot in the top three as they face Strasbourg at the Stade Velodrome in Ligue 1 on Sunday.

Organization, in particular at home, has increased significantly in the last few weeks for the second-stalled Roberto De Zerbi’s team that has established a significant cushion from the clubs behind them.

An impressive 2-1 victory against Renne at their backyard last weekend ensured that Marseille remained the second place in the league, albeit a distant second with Paris Saint Germans miles ahead.

Having collected only 16 points in the last 6 Ligue 1 games, OM are five points ahead of Monaco occupying the place above it, but second is the only more or less achievable goal now, as the league’s leaders PSG are 7 points ahead.

However, it has been a rather disappointing week since Marseille was eliminated from the Coupe de France on Tuesday by Lille on penalties in the Velodrome despite the fact that all the forces of the team were being thrown in the match after the 96th minute, equalizing Luis Henrique.

Generally, form at home is an issue for them, they managed only 12 points out of thirty six on the Velodrome and no team in Europe’s top leagues has such a big difference in home and away results.

But they have won seven out of the three home league matches, including vital victory against Monaco and thrashing Le Havre last Sunday, so they have come a long way from the dramatic events when De Zerbi threatened to resign not more than two weeks ago.

But it gets dicey for De Zerbi quite swiftly as he has three such teams in the next three games – Strasbourg is up next followed by Nice and Lyon.

Before this season, Marseille were on a good run against Strasbourg having failed to lose to them in their last seventeen encounters but in the recent clash in Alsace the omens became worse for the visitors as they went down 1-0.

If their two victories in the Coupe de France are included, Strasbourg is on a five-game winning streak after going five games without a victory. This has pushed them up the Ligue 1 table and secured them a spot in the cup's round of 16.

Rosenior is aware that his team needs to improve from midweek, when they needed penalties to defeat fifth-tier Thaon in order to advance in the Coupe, even though their fears of relegation have now subsided and they are aiming for European qualification.

Elye Wahi, Amine Harit, and Geoffrey Kondogbia are all questionable, and Faris Moumbagna will be sidelined once more as he recovers from an ACL tear.

Due to the absence of several attackers, they will once more turn on Mason Greenwood, the Ligue 1 Player of the Month for December, for motivation as he maintains his stellar play that has propelled him to the top of the scoring lists.

Yoni Gomis returned to Strasbourg following a foot injury during the week, while Thomas Delaine, Sekou Mara, Dion Sahi, and Caleb Wiley are still out.

Although he made a long-awaited comeback from injury, goalie Alaa Bellaarouch is probably now a third choice because he did not play in the cup in midweek despite a lot of rotation.