Minutes after their midweek Champions League matches, Marseille boss Roberto De Zerbi and his Paris Saint-Germain counterpart Luis Enrique were turning their thoughts to Sunday night's Ligue 1 clash between the clubs.
Nicknamed Le Classique to embody the rivalry between the two clubs and cities, the game is one of the most eagerly anticipated in the Ligue 1 calendar.
The sides will clash with PSG top of Ligue 1 and boasting 12 points from victories in all four of their matches. Marseille lie seventh with six points following two wins and two losses.
"It's the best way to prepare for the next match," Enrique told PSG TV, after his team walloped Atalanta 4-0 to start the defence of their Champions League title on Wednesday night.
"We know what the game against Marseille means for our supporters and for the club. We're happy to be going to Marseille."
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Loss to Madrid
De Zerbi's charges will entertain PSG at the Vélodrome stadium, nursing a grudge from their 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night.
Referee Irfan Peljto awarded a penalty to Madrid late in the game, after Facundo Medina was deemed to have handled the ball.
"For me, there was no penalty, ever," said De Zerbi. "Not at the Bernabeu, not at the Vélodrome, not at Real Sociedad. Nowhere. I have no ulterior motive, I don't want to cause controversy. I'm just saying there was no penalty. Full stop."
The game at the the Bernabeu was Marseille's first encounter with the new format of the Champions League, introduced in the 2024-25 season.
Uefa changed the configuration from eight pools of four teams furnishing a top two for last-16 knockout stages to a 36-team league phase in which clubs play eight games.
The top eight sides qualify automatically for the last-16 knockout stages, while those finishing ninth to 24th progress to a two-leg play-off for the other eight places.
"A game at the Bernabeu should be something habitual for a team of Marseille's stature," added De Zerbi. "When these kind of games aren't special, the supporters, the players and the coaches go into it in a different way so I'm glad that we're playing PSG so soon. It will be a test of where we want to be as a club."
PSG dominance
As De Zerbi prepares his players for the game on Sunday night, Marseille and the rest of France's Ligue 1 are facing the question of how to rein in PSG.
Under the management of the Qatari Sport Investment (QSI) group, PSG have won 11 of the past 13 Ligue 1 crowns.
PSG have also harvested eight Coupe de France trophies and effectively annexed the Coupe de La Ligue with six titles in the seven seasons before the tournament was abolished in 2020.
The 5-0 annihilation of Inter Milan in Munich allowed PSG to emulate Marseille's 1993 victory and become the second French club to win European club football's most prestigious trophy.
The triumph further vindicated QSI's billion-euro investment in the team and club infrastructure.
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Trophy haul
Simon Chadwick, a professor of Afro-Eurasian sports at Emlyon business school, told France 24 after PSG's Champions League victory in May: "QSI have spent more than a decade and a lot of money trying to get this right. But the clubs that appear at the top of money leagues such as Real Madrid don't win the Champions League once, they do it on an ongoing basis.
"So the big challenge for PSG's owners and those associated with the team is to come back and do it again."
Enrique, who arrived at the Parc des Princes in July 2023, appears to be ready for the challenge.
Since taking over from Christophe Galtier, the Spaniard has piled up successive domestic trebles of Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Trophée des Champions (French Super Cup).
The Champions League title was followed by a surprise loss to Chelsea in the Club World Cup final in the United States and a thrilling comeback against Tottenham Hotspur to lift the Uefa Super Cup.
He used his heft from the Champions League success to engineer the arrival of goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier from Lille to replace Italy international Gianluigi Donnarumma.
"There are always difficult decisions to make," said Enrique, after anointing 23-year-old Chevalier as his number one.
"But I have no problem making this decision and I'm not about to talk publicly about PSG players. I'm really not interested in doing that."
Chevalier, who was voted by his peers as the best goalkeeper in Ligue 1 in 2025, is prized for his ability to spray passes accurately from the penalty area, while Donnarumma was not as adept with his feet but hailed for his shot-stopping prowess.
PSG have won all five of their games since Chevalier's installation but they will travel to Marseille weakened.
Key midfielder Joao Neves limped off during the game against Atalanta and has joined star strikers Ousmane Dembélé and Désiré Doué in the sick bay.
"Even without those three, PSG are strong," said Marseille goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli, "They won almost everything last season. We aspire to beat them and reach that kind of level, especially when we see that they continue to move forward and remain the best even with injured players."
He added: "Our club's ambition is to fight for the title. We know there's a gap between them and us but I'm hoping that we can fight them right until the end."
