Our prediction for this Ligue 1 match:
Olympique Marseille will look to build on a 2-1 win over Nantes when they take on Auxerre at Stade Velodrome in the opening match of round 11. OM quickly bounced back from a heart-breaking loss to their bitter rivals PSG, but they need to keep on making progress if they are to make it to the Champions League. Summer signing Neal Maupay should keep his place up front after finding the net in the last league match, while all Ulisses Garcia, Valentin Carboni, Faris Moumbagna, Ruben Blanco, and Bilal Nadir remain on the sidelines with injuries.
Christopher Pelissier’s men, on the other hand, are a real force to be reckoned with at home, crushing Rennes 4-0 at the weekend, but given their poor away record (0-1-4) in the new Ligue 1 campaign, we predict that they are going to return to Burgundy empty-handed. In their last encounter at Velodrome Marseille defeated Auxerre 2-1.
Highlighted Player (Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg):
Born in Copenhagen, on the 5th of August, 1995, Hojbjerg has been playing football since the age of five. The Danish International spent his youth career playing for clubs BK Skjold, F.C. Copenhagen and Brondby IF. In 2012, he moved to Germany to sign his first professional contract with Bundesliga giants FC Bayern Munich.
After spending his first year playing for the Munich reserves, the midfielder made his maiden professional appearance the following season, in a Bundesliga game against FC Nurnberg on the 13th of April. Hojbjerg's next spell came at FC Augsburg, who signed him on a six-month loan from the Bavarians in January 2015. The same year, he scored his first-ever professional goal that came in a 2-1 away loss to Paderborn 07 on the 11th of April. The following season, he was loaned out again, this time to Schalke 04 for a whole season.
In a move that would mark the end of his stint in German Football, Hojbjerg joined Premier league club Southampton in 2016 on a transfer worth 13 million euros. He's currently on a five-year contract with the Saints. At the International level, the 24-year-old represented Denmark at every iteration of the youth level before making his senior debut on the 28th of May, 2014, in a friendly against Sweden.
Highlighted Team (Marseille):
Olympique de Marseille are considered one of the best French football clubs. Les Olympiens won their ninth Ligue 1 title in 2010, but winning of the 1992/1993 Champions League trophy is seen as the club’s biggest success. Marseille defeated Italian giants Milan in the title game, with Basile Boli scoring the winner (1-0) in the Olympiastadion showdown.
It has to be noted, though, that the Stade Velodrome outfit were banned from defending the title in the 1993/1994 season after being involved in a match-fixing scandal. To make things even worse for the fans, the club suffered enforced relegation to the Ligue 2. Olympique de Marseille participated in the Europa League final on two occasions (1998/1999, 2003/2004), but they were beaten by Parma and Valencia respectively in the title games. OM’s home ground Stade Velodrome was opened on June 13, 1997 and the capacity of the stadium is 67.394.
The likes of Franck Ribery, Didier Deschamps, Didier Drogba, Laurent Blanc, Fabien Barthez, Samir Nasri, Fabrizio Ravanelli and Djibril Cisse all played for Marseille in the past.