Bocaly joked: "I think it was probably Mamadou that contaminated everyone... he should have been quarantined a little earlier before ruining the 'clasico' for everyone."

Sakho: "Garry and I have spent the whole week together and we've already started ribbing each other a little about the game."

Bocaly: "Mamadou and I were talking about the two grounds and which has the best atmosphere, Mamadou was saying the Parc des Princes was the best and I was saying the Vélodrome."

At 21 Bocaly is the elder of the pair by two years, yet Sakho is undoubtedly the senior of the two when it comes to football. The 19-year-old centre-half is an uncontested first choice at club level and skippered the Under-21s to a 1-0 win over Slovenia on Tuesday night in Reims to carry Les Bleuets level with Ukraine at the top of Group 8 qualifying for the 2011 European Championships.

Contrasting fortunes

Bocaly has a single Ligue 1 appearance to his name for Didier Deschamps' team this season in the Week 12 home draw with the ten men of Toulouse. After a successful loan spell helping Montpellier into the top-flight last season, Bocaly is chomping at the bit for more first-team action. By way of contrast PSG showed their faith in Sakho by passing up the opportunity to resign former fans favourite Gabriel Heinze from Real Madrid this summer. Heinze instead moved to... OM!

Sakho: "It's true that the club showed a lot of confidence in my abilities and my potential in not trying to sign Gabriel Heinze. My aim now is to repay that faith and try and play as well as I can each time I go out there. "

Bocaly: "The current situation isn't easy, but I try and stay focused on the big picture. It wasn't easy when Laurent Bonnart was injured and he played Charles Kaboré at right-back ahead of me, but I was only just back from injury and hadn't played much football. It could have been a chance for me and it wasn't."

'Clasico' memories

Nevertheless Bocaly has special memories of the 'clasico'. Back in March 2006 as a raw 17-year-old he made his full OM debut in a 0-0 draw at the Parc des Princes. Marseille president Pape Diouf elected to send an inexperienced side to Paris to protest against security measures at the ground and the fact he felt OM fans had been denied their due quota of seats inside the stadium.

Bocaly: "Playing against PSG is without a doubt the best memory of my short career as a professional. It was my first match with the first team, it was a 'clasico', away in Paris and to pull off that incredible upset which was to get the scoreless draw with our reserve team, it was an incredible moment. It's there in my head and I won't forget it in a hurry."

After that look back, the final word goes to Sakho, looking ahead to Friday's crunch game.

Sakho: "It's never good to think too much about a match before you play it. We have to work hard to prepare for the game like we do for any game, but it's true that the games against Marseille are special. We're going to go there in the right frame of mind to play well. We know there are a lot of things that go on around a match like this, but we just have to concentrate on what goes on, on the pitch."

Follow OM-PSG LIVE on ligue1.com from 21:00 CET on Friday November 20!

>> OM-PSG: The 'clasico' countdown continues!

>> Heinze: "The most important match of the season"