Matchday 10: Marseille vs. PSG, Le Classique POSTPONED

EDIT: The Classico has been postponed at the LFP’s recommendation.
The panel had initially given the Ligue 1 ‘clasico’ the green light on Saturday, despite confirmation that two PSG players had contracted swine flu.

“However, an official LFP statement said the commission had reversed the decision at Sunday lunchtime and placed the PSG squad and staff in a 72-hour quarantine to ‘prevent any risk of infection, including among the opposing team, and to avoid any serious medical complications that could occur among players if the match were to go ahead.’

‘I would like to apologise in the name of the LFP to the public, to the clubs, to the supporters and the TV broadcasters,’ said LFP President Mr Frédéric Thiriez. ‘It’s clear that the players’ health should be our main priority.’

The date of the rescheduled match has yet to be decided.”

From the LFP Official Wesite

It just can’t get any worse for this club, can it? Two of our players have been diagnosed with H1N1. Yeah, that’s swine flu, the virus that’s been deemed a national emergency by President Obama. It is believed that the players are Mamadou Sakho and Ludovic Giuly, and rumor has it that Jeremy Clement may have been effected as well, which is just wonderful considering the injuries we’re already dealing with. Anyway, tomorrow we take on Olympique de Marseille in the French Classico, the North vs. South derby, the fake rivalry created by Canal+ that has taken on a life of it’s own. The Marseille Offside has been providing great coverage of all the prematch events. Check out their preview here, after which there is little to say. Both teams are under preforming in Ligue 1, OM sit in 5th place, while we’re…erm…hanging out in the bottom half of the table…haven’t won since end of August…etc, you’ve heard it all before. Marseille aren’t doing so well in the Champions League either (Gabi Heinze is their top and only scorer), but that’s beside the point.

PSG Info:
Sakho, Giuly, and possibly Clement (although he made the trip) have the pig disease. Hoarau is out for at least five weeks with a “badly twisted right knee”, Mevlut Erding is doubtful, although he also made the trip, and Willy Grondin has a hamstring issue. And of course Zoumana Camara is dealing with his deep vein thrombosis. This makes our formation a complicated thing…

Coupet
Ceara-Traore-Bourillon-Armand
Jallet-Makelele-Chantome/Ngoyi-Sessegnon
Luyindula-Maurice/Arnaud

I’m scared. Very scared. This just doesn’t look like a team capable of holding off Marseille, who seem to be injury free…

Le Groupe Marseillais
Gardiens : Mandanda, Andrade
Défenseurs : Bonnart, Heinze, Mbow, Taiwo, Hilton, Diawara
Milieux : Lucho, Kaboré, Cissé, Cheyrou, Abriel, Mbia, Valbuena, Ben Arfa
Attaquants : Niang, Brandao, Morientes, Koné

So I would assume that means the formation will look something like this…

Mandanda
Bonnart-Diawara-Heinze-Taiwo
Mbia
Lucho-Cheyrou
Kone-Brandao-Niang

My Prediction: Last time I got it right, so let’s go with 1-0 PSG. I know, I know, I’m delusional.

Think happy thoughts as you watch this video…


Liveblog


ALLEZ PSG!

Category: Competitions, Guillaume Hoarau, Mamadou Sakho, Mevlut Erding, PSG Video, Peguy Luyindula, Players, Previews, Team News