Ligue 1 
Marseille will be looking to keep chase with the top two in Ligue 1, when they welcome a struggling Troyes side to the Stade Velodrome in Sunday’s evening game.
OM sit third in the table, two points behind second-place Lens and eight points behind the leaders, Paris Saint-Germain. With eight games to go, there is still a chance the dominant Parisians can be caught, with Marseille also aiming to retain their place in the Champions League. A consecutive top-two finish would see the Southern France outfit qualify for the group stages once again, with the third place in Ligue 1 having to go through the qualifier stages. Igor Tudor’s side have to keep winning to avoid dropping out of the Champions League spots, with fourth-place Monaco hot on their tail. Les Monégasques are just three points behind the top three.
Troyes are fighting at the other end of the table, with relegation to Ligue 2 a real threat. ESTAC are 18th in the table, and with the bottom four teams going down this season, look in real danger. Troyes are seven points from safety, with 17th place Strasbourg five points away. Back-to-back wins for Auxerre has seen them surge up the table and out of the relegation zone, leaving three of those bottom four teams in need of a late great escape. Rock-bottom Angers look doomed on 14 points.
Marseille have dropped off a bit in recent weeks, with just two wins and three draws in their last five games. Those draws, firstly the 2-2 at home to Strasbourg, then the 1-1 home draw with Montpellier, followed by the 0-0 stalemate with Lorient last out were all games in which you would have expected OM to cruise to the three points. Instead, Tugor’s side have dropped six points in their last three games, with their only win coming in between those results, away to an in-form Reims. On the plus side, Marseille are unbeaten in the league since being defeated 3-0 by PSG six games ago.
It's been an even worse run for Troyes, whose form indicates why they are struggling in the relegation zone. Patrick Kisnorbo’s side have gone 13 games without a win in Ligue 1, losing ten of those. The north-eastern outfit have suffered back-to-back defeats in their last two games, with the 1-0 defeat away at Auxerre being followed up by a 2-0 defeat at home to Clermont Foot last Sunday.
In the reverse fixture between these two teams earlier in the season, Marseille came away from the Stade de l'Aube with all three points. Former Newcastle defender Chancel Mbemba opened the scoring inside ten minutes, with Jordan Veretout getting the second goal in the 46th minute to secure a 2-0 win in January.
