Marseille will aim to remain in the driving seat for a second-placed finish in Ligue 1 when they travel to the Stade Auguste-Delaune to take on Reims on Sunday night.
Jorge Sampaoli's side came from behind to beat Nantes 3-2 on Wednesday, while the hosts left it late to beat Lille 2-1 in dramatic fashion.
Match preview
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Even Reims captain Yunis Abdelhamid was stunned into disbelief after his delightful late winner during the visit of champions Lille, as Oscar Garcia's side waited until the 92nd minute to sink Les Dogues' unfamiliar first XI in front of their own fans.
Marshall Munetsi scrambled home the opening goal just after the half-hour mark before Renato Sanches responded for Lille with a thunderbolt from outside the area, but 34-year-old centre-back Abdelhamid curled in an equally sublime effort with seconds remaining to propel Reims to all three points.
By ending a four-game winless run in the top flight, Reims have all but assured their place in Ligue 1 for the 2022-23 season and currently sit 13th in the table - 13 points clear of the bottom two with only five games remaining - so their survival could be guaranteed if results go their way this weekend.
Securing their Ligue 1 status with a youthful side can no doubt be viewed as a success on Garcia's part, although he will seemingly be waving goodbye to in-demand striker Hugo Ekitike in the summer and will hope to have the 19-year-old back from injury for one last swansong before the season is over.
The visit of Marseille represents another challenging end-of-season home test for Reims, who have lost just one of their last six Ligue 1 games at the Stade Auguste-Delaune but must also welcome Lens and Nice to their Marne headquarters in the final few weeks of the campaign.
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At the time of writing, it is still mathematically possible for Marseille to somehow pip Paris Saint-Germain to the Ligue 1 title on goal difference, but Mauricio Pochettino's side need only a point to confirm their status as French champions during Saturday's clash with Lens.
As a result, Les Olympiens will simply try to end the season as the best of the rest, and they aided that goal with a comeback win over Nantes in midweek, as a pair of Dimitri Payet penalties and Amine Harit's winner cancelled out Andrei Girotto's header and Marcus Coco's exquisite volley.
Had Jorge Sampaoli's side failed to come back and take all three points at the Orange Velodrome, PSG would have wrapped up the title on Wednesday, but the second-placed Olympiens remain 15 points adrift of the runaway leaders with five games left to play and have a return to the Champions League firmly in their sights.
Marseille remain six points clear of the chasing pack in Rennes, Strasbourg and Monaco and have now won nine of their last 10 in all competitions during a remarkable end-of-season spell, with the only outlier in that sequence being the Classique defeat to PSG.
Sampaoli may already have one eye on his side's Conference League semi-final with Feyenoord, but no side has accrued more points on the road than Marseille (33) in Ligue 1 this term, although they were forced to shake hands on a 1-1 draw with Reims at home just before Christmas.
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Team News
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Once again, the majority of Reims' injury concerns lie in the attacking third, with Ekitike still sidelined with a hamstring problem alongside fellow strikers and ankle victims Fraser Hornby and Anastasios Donis.
Nicolas Penneteau also missed the win over Lille due to injury, but the 41-year-old goalkeeper was never going to earn any minutes anyway, while Moreto Cassama was left out of the squad - seemingly a tactical choice by Garcia.
The hosting manager will aim to avoid making any alterations to a winning formula if he can help it, but Thomas Foket and El Bilal Toure could be drafted in if fatigue comes into play.
Meanwhile, Marseille could not keep their treatment room empty forever amid their hectic schedule, and Sampaoli has lost Konrad de la Fuente and Leonardo Balerdi for the rest of the season to knee and shoulder injuries respectively.
Cengiz Under lasted just 45 minutes of Le Classique and missed out altogether against Nantes with that knee injury, but Arkadiusz Milik returned as a substitute on Wednesday to boost the visitors' attacking options.
Sampaoli will certainly be tempted to rest Payet for the semi-final first leg with Feyenoord and can afford to do so with Milik and Bamba Dieng waiting in the wings, while Valentin Rongier could return to his new-found right-back role in a slightly altered XI.
Reims possible starting lineup:
Rajkovic; Foket, Faes, Abdelhamid, Gravillon, Konan; Cajuste, Munesti, Matusiwa; Toure, Kebbal
Marseille possible starting lineup:
Lopez; Rongier, Saliba, Caleta-Car, Peres; Gueye, Kamara, Guendouzi; Harit, Milik, Dieng
We say: Reims 0-2 Marseille
Marseille may be spending their Saturday evening watching PSG end their already-slim title hopes for good, but second place is still in their hands, and they will be in no mood to end their hot streak at the Stade Auguste-Delaune.
Getting one over the reigning champions is nothing to be sniffed at for Reims, but the options for rotation at Sampaoli's disposal makes it difficult to envisage Garcia's youthful side making lightning strike twice in front of the home crowd.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Marseille win with a probability of 49.18%. A win for Reims had a probability of 25.5% and a draw had a probability of 25.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Marseille win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.47%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.4%) and 0-2 (8.96%). The likeliest Reims win was 1-0 (7.72%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.04%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with an 11.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Marseille in this match and our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted the win for Marseille.
