Olympique de Marseille

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 Valenciennes FC

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French international forward Rémy suffered the injury in Wendesday's 3-1 Coupe de France Round of 16 victory over amateur club Bourg-Péronnas and is expected to be absent for three weeks. The nine-goal club top scorer has been in devastating form this season, earning plaudits and the attention of foreign clubs, to the extent that OM turned down a 20 million euro offer from English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur in January.

Deschamps: "Brandao is more focused"

Fortunately for coach Didier Deschamps, OM can call on the services of Brazilian centre-forward Brandao, who has scored in each of his four starts in all competitions since returning from a loan spell in his native country. Deschamps said of the 31-year-old former Shakhtar Donetsk hotshot hotshot: "He's been very effective since his return to the club. He's more applied in training. He's performing better as a target man and as a pivot. He's more focused in terms of everything he does on the field and has been scoring important goals for us."

OM have not been in league action since the Week 22 Olympico at the Vélodrome when they let a two-goal lead slip and were pegged back to a 2-2 final scoreline by OL. The scheduled Week 23 game in Annecy against Evian-Thonon-Gaillard was postponed after harsh weather and  will now take place on March 6. Sixth at the start of Week 24, OM have a game in hand on all of the sides above them, barring Lille, and will be looking to extend their excellent home record against VAFC which currently reads 16 wins, five draws and two losses.

VAFC: Back-to-back L1 wins

VAFC, however, have managed to take points off OM in each of their last three league meetings, home and away, and make the long journey south buoyed by back-to-back league victories for the first time since February 2010 and by qualification for the last eight of the Coupe de France at the expense of holders, and neighbours, Lille.

OM right-back Cesar Azpilicueta said: "They're a tough team to play that have often caused us problems. Last season we lost there and they got a draw at our place. This season we got a 1-1 draw over there and we need to win now. VAFC play well and know how to make life hard for their opponents. We can't afford any more slip-ups in the league as we're coming from so far back and we need to continue on the right road we've been on these last few months."

André Ayew will replace Rémy on the left of OM's attack after returning from representing Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations and Steve Mandanda will be recalled in goal after being rested in the Coupe de France. VAFC coach Daniel Sanchez must make do without last season's top scorer Pujol and is likely to give centre-half Benjamin Angoua the weekend off after his midweek return from being at AFCON with Ivory Coast, the competition finalists.

Sanchez: "We have to avoid defeat"

Sanchez said: "It's prejudicial to us to not be able to use Greg more often. We want to continue our run. We have to avoid defeat, that's the objective to continue our run of positive results. It's not an end in itself to have won back-to-back league games. They're just stages in a long season.  We have a big game coming up at Marseille and we have to avoid taking the foot off the pedal. We need to be very focused and motivated to get a result there. The spirit in the ranks has to be beyond reproach when you take on the big clubs."

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