Best odds: 9/5
Bookmaker:
On Saturday evening, AS Monaco will welcome Olympique Marseille to their Stade Louis II where the two teams will stand against each other in what will be the fifth Ligue 1 game of the 2019/20 season for both.
Monaco
Having stunned the French football public by displacing the eternal favorites Paris Saint-Germain as the champions in 2016/17 and finishing second the following year, Monaco are struggling at the moment. Last season they barely escaped relegation, which naturally means that they won t be playing any European football this term, and things aren t looking any better at the moment. Not if the opening four games are anything to by.
Monaco enter this clash from one step above the bottom of the table. They ve only managed to book two points, by squeezing out draws against Nimes Olympique and Strasbourg. Meanwhile, they were hammered 0-3 at home by Olympique Lyon in the season opener and then away to Metz, by the same scoreline. More worrying still, perhaps, is the fact that they finished three of the four games so far with 10 men on the pitch.
The morale of the team is likely low, but maybe they ll look on the upcoming match as an opportunity to turn the season around.
Team News
Goalkeeper Danijel Subasic may return after being sidelined with a hamstring problem, but it s still reasonable to expect 28-year-old Benjamin Lecomte between the sticks once more. However, boss Leonardo Jardim definitely won t be able to call upon forwards Stevan Jovetic, who is recovering from an ACL injury, and Willem Geubbels, who has a thigh problem.
Marseille
Despite being widely announced as the next big football project in France, the 1993 Champions League winners still seem incapable of coming anywhere near to posing a genuine problem for PSG when it comes to Ligue 1 supremacy. Though they appear to have gotten over the stupor which caused them to end the 2015/16 season in 13th place, the best they could manage since then was fourth in 2017/18.
They don t look all that well at the moment either, but to be fair, the season has just begun and there s still plenty of time to build on their results so far two wins, a draw and a defeat, enough only for place number nine. They started the campaign with a surprising home defeat at the hands of Stade de Reims and followed it with a draw away to Nantes, but then they livened things up by beating Nice away and Saint-Etienne at the Velodrome.
Team News
Coach Andre Villas-Boas still cannot count on the services of Florian Thauvin. The winger is likely to remain out for the rest of the calendar year with an ankle injury.
Conclusion
This game may prove to be the turning point for Monaco as the win over Nice seems to have been for Marseille, but right now, looking at all the indications objectively, it certainly doesn t feel that way. The harsh truth for Monaco and their supporters at this point is that Marseille are looking at a good opportunity to book another three points by taking advantage of their early-season crisis.
Verdict: Away win
Best odds: 9/5
Bookmaker:
