Ligue 1 - Four Reasons to Watch the Weekend
Can Leo Messi start letting lose in Ligue 1?
If a club is going to put together three of the best forwards of the modern era in one team, there is going to be a lot of attention. Sometime's it is going to be for the bad - Kylian Mbappe's supposed grumpiness and Lionel Messi's previously stuttering form.
But sometimes it's for the good - as seen on Tuesday in the Champions League against Manchester City with Messi launching a rocket and the biggest of smiles to score his first goal for PSG. And that was even before meeting Ed Sheeran (international pop star and Ipswich Town squad member).
The question now is if an unburdened Messi can score his first Ligue 1 goal on Sunday against Rennes. Although that sounds a long wait for such a milestone, the upcoming match would only be Messi's second start in Ligue 1 and just his third appearance in all.
Rennes would be a symbolically good place to start scoring - a modern great at the home of a club that is consistently producing stars of the future such as Eduardo Camavinga (Real Madrid), and Edouard Mendy (Chelsea)
💥Rennes vs. PSG - live on beIN SPORTS on Sunday at 7AM ET / 4AM PT. ⚽️🇫🇷
Two Americans meet in Lille v Marseille match-up
A Super Sunday meeting between Lille and Marseille isn't just a massive match between two top-four chasing teams. It's also a duel between two US internationals.
Timothy Weah has had quite the week, inspiring a Lille win at Strasbourg followed by a call-up for the upcoming USMNT squad. Konrad de la Fuente was in mirror-land, on the wrong end of a Marseille defeat against Lens and missing out on Gregg Berhalter's team for three World Cup qualifiers.
For their clubs, the game is a sign of whether new Lille coach, Jocelyn Gourvennec , is starting to get a tune out of his team after back-to-back wins, and if Marseille can put in a pragmatic performance on the road against the reigning Ligue 1 champions.
👉 Lille vs. Marseille - live on beIN SPORTS on Sunday at 11AM ET / 8AM PT. 📺💥
Saint Etienne could pull off ultimate reboot against rivals
Separated by 40 miles and with the shadow of the Alps in the far, far distance, the Saint Etienne vs. Lyon rivalry is a deep-seated one. So much so in fact that Lyon fans are not even allowed to travel to Sunday's showpiece match-up for the fear that innate hostilities will go too far.
Both teams are going in completely the opposite directions this season. Saint Etienne - the club with most number of Ligue 1 wins in the modern era - have yet to pick up a victory and are on a five-defeat bounce. Les Verts are now rock bottom of the Ligue 1 standings with just three points.
That'll make Lyon fans even happier. OL are undergoing a promising rebuild under Peter Bosz and look good for a top-four finish with a squad stacked with talent such as the Brazilian international pair of Lucas Paqueta and Bruno Guimaraes, young French talent like Houssem Aouar along experienced old heads such as Anthony Lopes in goal, Jerome Boateng and Xherdan Shaqiri.
It's a tough ask for Saint Etienne to get their first win of the season against Lyon - but there will be a 100% committed crowd behind Claude Puel's team willing it on.
🇫🇷 Saint Etienne vs Lyon - Live on beIN SPORTS on Sunday from 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT. 💥⚽️
Monaco's deadly duo back in business
When Monaco coach, Niko Kovac, was pondering why a team that came a hamster's whisker from winning Ligue 1 last season was at the other end of the table this year, the answer would have been pretty simple - his strikers weren't scoring any goals.
It's always going to be a problem for a team, but these are no ordinary forwards. These are internationals for France and Germany respectively, Wissam Ben Yedder and Kevin Volland who scored 36 Ligue 1 goals between them last season.
Monaco are now charging once again towards the top-three with seven points picked up from the past three games. To gold Old West, in them their games Ben Yedder scored four goals and Voland bagged two. Coincidence or correlation?
