Nantes vs Marseille Prediction - Will Marseille Still Be Able To Reach The Top Four This Season?

Next Friday, Nantes will take on the historical French side Marseille at the Stade de la Beaujoire for round 35 of the Ligue 1 on a match that the visitors need to win if they want to keep dreaming with a place among the top four at the end of the season.

After last week’s home draw against Lille, Marseille might have considerably mamed their aspirations of granting a place in the UEFA Europa League next season. The historical French side are having another season to forget and they are already thinking on the upcoming campaign, during which they will allegedly have the Argentinean football master Marcelo Bielsa at the helm of the team. During last match’s press conference the current interim manager, José Anigo, made the mistake of mentioning Bielsa’s name as Marseille’s manager for the season to come, even though that fact still hasn’t been confirmed by any member of the team’s board.

Marseille are currently on a four-match undefeated row but if they want to extend that good run they will have to put up something special to defeat an always complicated Nantes.

For next Friday’s match, José Anigo will have no major injury problems at his team and he will surely have all the players at his disposal.

As for Nantes, their comeback to Ligue 1 has been somewhat successful. The team currently occupies the 11th place of table, only two points behind of Stade de Reims (currently at the 8th place). Nantes’ Armenian born French manager - Michel Der Zakarian - is performing an excellent job at the club and, despite the slow start this season, he managed to find the necessary balance and consistency to maintain his side at the French top flight for another season.

Last weekend, Nantes severely hammered Valenciennes 6-2 at Stade du Hainaut and managed to climb a place on the table, thanks to that expressive win. Nantes were only defeated once on the last seven matches and they will certainly offer a big resistance to Marseille on next Friday’s match at Stade de la Beaujoire.

For next Friday’s game, Michel Der Zakarian (Nantes’ manager) will not be able to count on the team’s Serbian star forward Filip Djordjevic, on the Senegalese midfielder Rémi Gomis, and on the French midfielder Vincent Bessat, all sidelined due to injuries.

When both sides met last December at Stade Velodrome, Nantes shocked Marseille, as they won by 1-0 with an early goal from Alejandro Bedoya.

Nantes

Stats: W-12 L-15 D-7

Recent Form - WDLWW

Marseille

Stats: W-14 L-10 D-10

Recent Form - LDWWD

Possible Line-ups

Nantes (4-3-3) - Riou - Vizcarrondo - Veigneau - Alhadhur - Djidji - Deaux - Bedoya - Veretout - Gakpe - Audel - Shechter

Marseille (4-3-3) - Mandanda - Nkoulou - Mendes - Mendy - Dja djedje - Cheyrou - Romao - Valbuena - Payet - Gignac - Ayew

Prediction

Nantes 1 Marseille 1