Le Classique arrives at the Stade Vélodrome on Sunday under unusually difficult circumstances for both Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain, with the two French giants stumbling through the opening weeks of the Ligue 1 season.
Defending champions PSG travel to Marseille in seventh place after taking five points from their first four matches. Luis Enrique’s side have recorded one win, two draws and one defeat, scoring six goals and conceding six. Their first league victory came only on Matchday 4, when Ferran Torres scored in a 1-0 win away to Brest.
Marseille have made an even worse start. After opening the season with a 4-0 victory against Strasbourg, OM lost their next three Ligue 1 matches: 2-0 to Monaco, 3-2 to Paris FC and 1-0 at Rennes. Bruno Génésio’s side sit 13th with three points from four matches.
Luis Enrique insisted that the standings will carry little weight when the rivals meet.
“There are no favourites in football and certainly not in *Le Classique*,” the PSG coach said. “This game is really important to us, and we want not only to get the three points given our start to the league season but also to improve.”
## Contrasting form, similar styles
Despite their poor early results, PSG and Marseille have been the league’s two most possession-dominant sides.
| Metric | Paris Saint-Germain | Marseille |
|—|—:|—:|
| Average possession | 67.4% | 60.8% |
| Ligue 1 rank for possession | 1st | 2nd |
| Passes per possession sequence | 5.5 | 5.2 |
| Ligue 1 rank for passing sequences | 1st | 2nd |
Both sides therefore approach the match with a preference for controlling territory and building patiently through possession, even though neither has translated that control into consistent league results.
## Stakes at the Vélodrome
PSG’s start represents their worst after four matches since Qatar Sports Investments took control of the club in 2011. The champions began the weekend five points behind leaders Monaco, making victory in Marseille important both for momentum and for preventing an early gap at the top from widening.
Marseille, meanwhile, risk a first-ever top-flight start of four defeats from their opening five league fixtures if they lose. PSG remain strong pre-match favourites—the Opta supercomputer assigned them a 63.4% chance of victory, compared with Marseille’s 16.2%—but recent form and the Vélodrome atmosphere make the fixture less predictable than usual.
The recent head-to-head record favours PSG: they won three of the last five meetings, including a 5-0 victory at the Parc des Princes in February. Marseille’s sole win in that sequence was a 1-0 home success in September 2025, a result they will hope can serve as a reminder that the Vélodrome can still unsettle the champions.
