MARSEILLE v LYON
Sunday 18th March 2018 – Kickoff: 2100hrs
Football – France – Ligue 1 Betting Tips
Marseille currently occupy third place in the French top flight, and they’ll be wanting things to stay that way when they take on fourth placed Lyon at their Stade Vélodrome on Sunday evening, and preserve their five point lead over their visitors.
Sunday’s hosts have suffered just one defeat from their last 11 matches overall in Ligue 1, which was an understandable 3-0 loss away at French league leaders, PSG, but recent wins over Bordeaux (1-0 at home) and Toulouse (2-1 away), have maintained their pursuit of a Champions League qualifier spot.
With Marseille being seven points behind second placed Monaco with just nine matches remaining of the season, it seems unlikely they’ll be able to catch them up, barring a catastrophic run-in for the principality club, but Marseille can ensure they take third place. A home record of 9-4-1 33/13 including an 11-match unbeaten run says they should avoid defeat here.
Lyon come into this Ligue 1 clash having been dumped out of the Europa League by Russian club, CSKA Moscow, during the week after Lyon lost 3-2 in a tense second leg at their Groupama Stadium, and I wonder if this hard fought tie took its toll on the players.
On the domestic front, Lyon are unbeaten in their last four with last week’s 1-0 home win over Caen ending a string of three stalemates on the trot, having drawn with Lille 2-2 away, and 1-1 draws against Saint-Etienne and Montpellier respectively.
Perhaps more importantly though, is the fact that Lyon are without an away win from their last four outings which includes defeats at Bordeaux and Monaco, and another trip to a top four club on the back of an intense Europa League tie could undo them here.
Pick: Marseille AH-0.25 @ 1.68 Marathonbet
