At around 19:15 CEST, the Paris Saint-Germain squad reached the CEPAC Vélodrome in Marseille. As the players stepped off the team bus, their faces gave a hint of what their aims were for the evening: to win the first Classique of the season and to get a welcome confidence boost ahead of the international break.
Luis Enrique's men then made their way to the dressing room, which had been meticulously prepared by the coaching staff. While Les Parisiens made themselves feel at home, the Vélodrome was opening its doors to the first few spectators of what promised to be a richly entertaining night.
A few moments later, Matvey Safonov, Lucas Chevalier and Adam Mouak were the first Paris players to step onto the pitch before being joined by the rest of the squad for the pre-match warm-up, while the stands became more and more populated with each passing minute.
Led by captain Marquinhos, Les Rouge et Bleu got their bearings, completed a series of passing drills and ramped up their efforts amid a din from the home fans, who were determined to see their side return to winning ways.
To take on Les Olympiens, Luis Enrique named the aforementioned Safonov in goal, while Warren Zaïre-Emery replaced the injured Achraf Hakimi at right-back and Nuno Mendes started on the opposite side. There would be no surprises in central defence, however, as Willian Pacho was placed alongside Marquinhos. In the midfield, Vitinha was deployed in the engine room, surrounded by João Neves and Fabián Ruiz. Finally, up front, Ousmane Dembélé was positioned in the centre-forward role, accompanied by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Désiré Doué, both of whom were returning to the starting XI after missing out against Brest.
As for Marseille, CJ Egan-Riley featured alongside Nayef Aguerd at centre-back, with Timothy Weah at right-back and Emerson at left-back. In the middle, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Himad Abdelli and Amine Harit were the ones to start, while Neal Maupay took the place of Angel Gomes in attack to support the indispensable Amine Gouiri and Igor Paixão.
With 15 minutes to go until kick-off, Les Rouge et Bleu finished their warm-up and returned to the dressing room. Not long afterwards, both teams were lining up in the tunnel to make their grand entrance on the pitch, where they were awaited by over 62,000 spectators.
An hour and a half earlier, Le Classique was just another game. Now, everything was in place for it to begin.
