Olympique Marseille vs Olympique Lyon Prediction: Can Lyon pull off a draw?

A clash between Marseille and Lyon was once regarded as an epic clash between two top teams in French Football. And there's a very strong reason to believe this game will live up to the standards even though both clubs seem to be miles apart on the league table.

Marseille had an interesting week, winning both their Europa league game against Ajax and also their league game against Stade Rennes. They are cruising at the moment and now they intend to build a winning streak when Lyon visits the Orange Velodrome this weekend.

Lyon continue to struggle in the league and the hope of returning back to form is slowly becoming impossible. They are coming off back-to-back defeats against LOSC Lille and RC Lens. Now they head to the Orange Velodrome hoping to do the impossible and break their losing cycle.

It's easy to pick Marseille as the winner of this clash. They have all the cards in their hands; the advantage of playing at home, the form and the quality. But they must be at their best to put Lyon out of their misery.

Marseille's display in their last 2 games have been encouraging and they earned their 2 wins last week which were against Ajax (4:3) in the Europa League and Stade Rennes (2:0) in the Ligue 1.

Marseille got off to a very strong start against Rennes. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang opened the scoring from the penalty spot in just 8 minutes of play and the game stayed that way until the 65th minute when Azzedine Ounahi gave Marseille the second goal. The game experienced some drama in the second half, with both Christopher Wooh (Rennes) and Iliman Ndiaye (Marseille) seeing red.

Currently, Marseille are ranked 9th with 13 points from 4 wins, 4 draws and 4 defeats in 13 matches. A win here would see them climb above Nantes in 8th place.

Marseille did the double against Lyon last season and a repeat is now more likely considering the current form of the Lyon.

Olympique Lyon have one objective for the remainder of the season and that is to survive the drop by the end of the season. But at the moment, they seem to be failing to do that as they have been since the start of the season.

 Lyon still have just 1 win after 13 matches played this season. That was the 1:0 win against Stade Rennes last month. Since then, they had lost their last 2 games in a row. Their most recent game against RC Lens ended in a 3:2 defeat for Lyon. Jake O’Brien gave Lyon the early lead in the 15th minute of the game, but not for long as Rennes came level in the 26th minute. And in the second half, Rennes went ahead through a penalty in the 52nd minute and once again Jake O’Brien brought Lyon level with another goal in the 72nd minute. Finally, it wasn't Lyon’s night as their hopes for a draw was smashed 2 minutes later as Rennes went ahead and went on to win the game.

 Olympique Lyon are in a pickle at the moment and they are desperate to turn things around with the threat of relegation looming. They need a good game against Marseille and a win is the only result that would make sense to the team. But Marseille still hold the bragging rights after beating Lyon twice last season. But Lyon won 3:0 at the Orange Velodrome back in May last year.

Olympique Lyon have the lead in terms of head-to-head record against Olympique Marseille. Lyon won 9 of their 20 matches against Marseille, while Marseille have 5 wins. And they played a draw 6 times.

Olympique Marseille’s win will be the most popular and sensible pick for this fixture because there's just no way Lyon are doing anything spectacular at the moment.

I don't see Marseille throwing away this opportunity against such an opposition. Looking back at their past meetings, analysis shows that 5 of their last 6 matches ended with less than 10.5 corners and less than 4.5 cards.

• Home Win or Draw and Under 3.5 Goals at 1.73 Odds
• Home Win at 1.769 Odds
• Correct Score 1-0 at 8.00 Odds