PSG quartet miss huge Ligue 1 fixture against Lille – originally posted on Sportslens.com
Parc des Princes is the venue as Paris Saint-Germain and Lille battle it out for a top place in Ligue 1 on Saturday.
PSG head into proceedings as table-toppers, albeit level on points with their upcoming rivals.
Both sides have blown hot and cold lately and will be looking to prove a point in one of the most highly anticipated fixtures on the French football schedule.
Paris Saint-Germain Preview
Paris endured mixed fortunes in their five Ligue 1 matches ahead of the international break (W3, L2), all of which featured at least one first-half goal.
After being held goalless to Lille in the reverse fixture earlier this season, Les Parisiens face the prospect of failing to beat this opposition in back-to-back league matches for the first time since 2012.
Coming into this matchday, Mauricio Pochettino’s men have lost two consecutive home league fixtures, last enduring a similar such run nine years ago.
However, PSG are undefeated in their 21 top-flight games against Lille on home turf (W13, D8), scoring 2+ goals in each of the last four.
The hosts have netted a league-high 35 home goals this season, notably finding the net in both halves in 53.33% of their Ligue 1 outings at the Parc des Princes (8/15).
Lille Preview
Les Dogues’s dismal 2-1 home defeat to relegation-threatened Nimes on the eve of the international break halted their 11-match unbeaten streak in Ligue 1 (W8, D3).
However, it has been over a year since Lille lost two consecutive league fixtures, and the fact that they have suffered just one defeat in their last 17 away league games (W12, D4) can fill them with confidence.
Additionally, Lille’s tally of three defeats in 30 league matches means only Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid (both two) have suffered fewer losses in Europe’s top-five divisions this term.
Starting well will be a priority for Lille as they boast an impressive 92.86% win-rate across the Ligue 1 matches in which they were ahead at half-time this season (GP14 – W13, D1).
A potential worry for Christophe Galtier ahead of this encounter could be that his men have failed to score in each of their last four competitive meetings with PSG (D1, L3).
Team News
Paris Saint-Germain
Out: Juan Bernat, Thilo Kehrer, Pablo Sarabia, Marco Verratti.
Doubts: N/A
Lille
Out: Jeremy Pied.
Doubts: N/A
Predicted Line-ups
Paris Saint-Germain (4-2-3-1): Keylor Navas; Colin Dagba, Marquinhos, Presnel Kimpembe, Layvin Kurzawa; Danilo Pereira, Idrissa Gueye; Angel Di Maria, Julian Draxler, Neymar; Kylian Mbappe.
Lille (4-4-2): Mike Maignan; Zeki Celik, Jose Fonte, Sven Botman, Reinildo Mandava; Jonathan Ikone, Boubakary Soumare, Benjamin Andre, Jonathan Bamba; Jonathan David, Burak Yilmaz.