Ligue 1: 4 Reasons to Watch the Weekend
Guaranteed goals at the Parc de Princes and Marseille making moves.
1) Goals galore promised at the Parc de Princes
Lionel Messi might have been sidelined for Saturday's game against Montpellier, but that's not going to be a problem on Saturday for fans wanting a glut of goals.
Saturday's match at the Parc de Princes pairs the two teams with the most goals scored in their games in Ligue 1 this season. Indeed, both sides have racked up 35 strikes on their own in their combined 14 matches.
PSG are looking to make it eight straight wins since the start of the season. It's impressive, and it's run that has been pushed to the every extremes with last-second winners. However the total PSG is chasing to beat the record is 14 wins, which was set in the 2018/19 season by a team called...PSG.
Although Kylian Mbappe, Mauro Icardi and Neymar have chipped in eight of PSG's 20 league goals this season, the success has been built on goals coming from everywhere. 10 have been scored by non-striking players from the squad (and an own goal). As Achraf Hakimi showed against Metz, if the front line isn't clicking, then there is a plan B and C. On Saturday, there could be a lot of them.
🔥 PSG vs. Montpellier - live on beIN SPORTS on Saturday at 3PM ET / 12PM PT. 👀
2) Reborn Marseille making some moves
The half of the campaign so far Marseille hinted at the team being the mirror image of its coach, Jorge Sampaoli: dynamic, unabashed and maybe a little unbalanced. The first three matches featured 13 goals - 8 of them were scored by Marseille, at least, to deliver two wins and a draw.
The next three matches have also produced two wins and a draw but with only four goals involved in the games and three clean sheets for Marseille. Wednesday's pragmatic 0-0 against third-placed Angers on Wednesday being the most recent. Quite the turnaround. This sees Marseille unbeaten and in second place (with a game in hand on PSG, seven points above them).
What makes this achievement even more remarkable is both the sheer volume of players that came into the club, added to their relative inexperience. Konrad de la Fuente ticks both of those boxes but is flourishing under Sampaoli along with the Arsenal pair of Matteo Guendouzi and William Saliba. While Sampaoli may come across as a little...heated, the Argentinean veteran coach definitely knows what he wants to with this new-look, red-hot, ice-cool Marseille side.
👉 Marseille vs. Lens - live on beIN SPORTS on Sunday from 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT 💥
3) Saint Etienne - Ligue 1's most famous fighting for their future
Although it's a record that looks set to be equaled this season, Saint Etienne are still top of the tree when it comes to Ligue 1 title wins in history with 10. That adds to the significance of Les Verts being second-bottom of the standings, without a win and enduring their worst start to a campaign since 1952/53.
Four straight defeats have knocked the stuffing out of Claude Puel's side and it will take all the French coach's experience to move the team back to mid-table, which has been its normal home of late. There may be a chance of getting something out of a Nice side that has been barged out of its stride in the week's Ligue 1 double-header with just one point from six.
⚽️ Saint Etienne vs. Nice - live on beIN SPORTS on Saturday from 10:50AM ET / 7:50AM PT 🇫🇷
4) Strasbourg: Catch the next big thing in Ligue 1
Jammed up against the German border and the official seat of the European Parliament, Strasbourg is a bit of a forgotten outlier in France. So is the city's football club, which largely goes about its business without too many people noticing.
But something is definitely stirring at the Stade de la Meinau stadium, about three miles away from Germany. Strasbourg only finished two points above the relegation zone last season but could be aiming a little higher with Julian Stephane now at the helm, the coach who helped develop Rennes into one of the most exciting teams in France. This is thanks in part to striker, Ludovic Ajorque, who has been involved in six of team's 11 Ligue 1 goals this season.
Strasbourg have now picked up three wins from four - the same number as the previous 16 games - and will fancy their chances of stopping a potential Lille revival in its tracks, despite Wednesday's 2-1 win over Reims for Timothy Weah and co.
