The top two heading into Round 16 meet on Sunday evening as LOSC entertain champions Paris Saint-Germain in a Ligue 1 Uber Eats showdown.
LOSC - PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN
(kick-off at 20:00 GMT on Sunday evening)
Top of the table ahead of Round 16, LOSC were 2-0 away winners against Dijon on Wednesday evening. Coach Christophe Galtier spent most of the post-match press conference fielding questions about the potential sale of the club rather than the victory in what was his 100th Ligue 1 Uber Eats game in charge of the club. Looking ahead to Sunday, however, Galtier said: "We'll have the same level of fatigue and in a one-off match anything is possible. The match comes along at the right time."
Midfielder Xeka carried on the theme: "We've now won three league games in a row and we need to carry on like that! Honestly we haven't set objectives within the squad. We're thinking about the next team that we're going to be playing against. It's good to be top of the table, but the season is far from finished. We're going to be playing our eighth match in a short space of time and fatigue is a factor. We'll need to stay focused."
American international forward Timothy Weah stepped off the bench on Wednesday to score his first Ligue 1 goal for LOSC and the 20-year-old is looking forward to facing PSG, the club where he came up through the ranks. Weah said: "We've got youth and experience. We want to win against PSG in order to show everybody that we're there to be counted with."
Galtier has won 51 of his 100 Ligue 1 matches at the helm of LOSC and the record is an even more impressive 45 wins from 80 matches when the 20 he oversaw helping save LOSC from relegation in 2017-2018 are taken out of the equation. Goalkeeper Mike Maignan, with 97 starts, has been Galtier's most used player.
PSG travel north in the knowledge they've only lost one of their last 16 top division games against LOSC, the 5-1 defeat in April 2019. Thomas Tuchel's team will be attempting to end Lille's unbeaten home record this season and late decisions will be made on the fitness of Brazilian stars Neymar and Marquinhos. Danilo Pereira, Mauro Icardi, Pablo Sarabia, Abdou Diallo and Juan Bernat are all definitely out.
Tuchel: "The end of this calendar year is a bit tricky"
PSG were unconvincing in beating Lorient 2-0 at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday evening and coach Tuchel admitted: "We lacked a bit of precision in the box. We scored with a penalty and the red card ended the match. We were lucky today and the end of this calendar year is a bit tricky."
Moise Kean netted PSG's second against Lorient following Kylian Mbappé's opener and the Italian international forward said: "This win will help us move forward and will give us courage in what we are doing. We are working to end the year well and on Sunday we have a very important match against Lille. We will need to be ready to play on Sunday."
Probable Teams:
LOSC: Maignan; Celik, Fonte, Botman, Reinildo; Ikoné, André, Soumaré, Bamba; David, Yilmaz
PSG: Navas; Kehrer, Marquinhos, Kimpembe; Florenzi, Verratti, Gueye, Rafinha, Kurzawa; Di Maria, Kean
