Marseille’s season is in danger of spiralling out of control if they slip to a fourth straight defeat at Ajaccio on Friday, four days before they head to Inter Milan to protect their slender lead in the Champions League round of 16.
Marseille have not scored a goal since beating Inter Milan 1-0, losing three straight league games to drop down to eighth place in the league and drifting away from contention for a European place next season.
Marseille, the French champion two seasons ago, are already eight points behind third-placed Lille with 12 matches remaining, making it an uphill struggle for coach Didier Deschamps between now and the end of the season.
“We’re not in a good way, nothing’s going for us,” Marseille defender Rod Fanni said. We’re creating less, we’re making things difficult for ourselves.
“I don’t know if we’ve said goodbye to the Champions League, but it will be very difficult.”
To make matters worse, Marseille are in their worst scoring drought since 2006-07, when they also went three games without a goal.
“I would like to know the reason why,” Spanish defender Cesar Azpilicueta said. “We can only get out of this through our collective strength.
“The time has come to encourage each other, to get our old team spirit back, and return to winning ways.”
Marseille’s slump coincides with injuries to winger Mathieu Valbuena and top scorer Loic Remy, who could return on Friday.
While Marseille continue to struggle, their biggest rival, Paris Saint-Germain, defend their one-point lead over second-placed Montpellier when they play at Dijon on Sunday. Montpellier have an easier-looking home game against Caen, also on Sunday.
Defending champion Lille, eight points behind PSG in third place, travel to seventh-placed Lyon, who went out of the Champions League to APOEL Nicosia in a penalty shootout on Wednesday night.
PSG finally ended a run of three straight draws by beating Ajaccio 4-1 at home last weekend to reclaim top spot.
“It was an important win for morale and team spirit. We have to keep going,” said midfielder Mohamed Sissoko, who returns from suspension.
“It’s going to be a very hard game. Dijon needs to pick up points, and so do we if we want to stay in first place.”
PSG still struggles to deal with set pieces, though, conceding four goals in the last two games from freekicks.
“We worked specifically on (defending) freekicks last week in training, and still conceded a goal,” PSG defender Christophe Jallet said. “We have to concentrate more.”
But at least coach Carlo Ancelotti’s team is delivering up front with 10 goals in the last three games.
The return of Guillaume Hoarau to spearhead the attack is working – he has three goals in three games – and Ancelotti will have been encouraged by the return to scoring form of record signing Javier Pastore and winger Jeremy Menez against Ajaccio.
Dijon will be hard to beat, however, showing their resilience by holding Montpellier to a 1-1 draw at home last weekend.
“We’re going to have to be very strong mentally to come out on top,” Sissoko said. “Dijon will want to make it a memorable match.”
PSG have banned their fans from travelling independently to Dijon, saying they regretted that the softening of the club’s stance on fans making their own way to away games has led to an increase of incidents “by people claiming to be supporters of Paris Saint-Germain”.
PSG harboured a notorious hooligan element among their fans from 1985-2010; until fan groups were disbanded at the start of last season by former president Robin Leproux.
That meant fans were forced to travel to away games through official club travel, making it easier to control who got tickets for away games and greatly reducing trouble.
The policy was relaxed this season, but has now been restored after PSG fans were involved in trouble at the Lyon game on February 25.
Flares and firecrackers were let off in the stadium, and there was reportedly a prearranged clash between hooligans in a forest near Lyon.
“These incidents happened very infrequently since the start of the season, but strongly increased in number and in amplitude” on February 25, the club said.
“In these circumstances, Paris Saint-Germain is forced to go back to last season’s system for away travel.”
The message does not seem to be getting across to everyone, however.
On Thursday morning about 50 supporters overwhelmed security and tried to invade the training ground, spitting at a cameraman filming the scene, before police restored order.
In a statement, PSG said it “strongly condemns an attempt at forceful intrusion at the training ground by individuals claiming to be PSG supporters” and will continue “all of its efforts to fight against violence.”
In Saturday’s other games, it is: Brest v Bordeaux; Evian v Sochaux; Nice v Nancy; Toulouse v Lorient, and Valenciennes v Saint-Etienne. Fourth-placed Rennes host Auxerre in Sunday’s other game.
