Paris-Troyes: the preview
Men's football•
We take a look ahead to Saturday's Ligue 1 Matchday 10 game with ESTAC Troyes the visitors to the Parc des Princes (9:05pm CET).
Damien Mittereau
ESTAC Troyes are back among the elite of French football. The reigning Ligue 2 champions know that their primary objective this season is to retain their top-flight status. They endured a particularly difficult spell when they suffered five consecutive defeats between early September and mid-October, but have recently managed to turn things around. They picked up a goalless draw away to Toulouse two weeks ago (0-0), before securing a victory over Le Mans last week (2-0). The win saw them leapfrog their opponents in the table and climb out of the relegation zone.
As for Paris Saint-Germain, their form could hardly be better. Whether in the league or the Champions League, Luis Enrique's men are flying high, as demonstrated by their historic 6-0 victory away to Villarreal in midweek. Despite several absences, the Parisians have been impressive in the league stringing together victories against Brest (0-1), Marseille (1-2), Le Mans (3-1), Strasbourg (1-3), Lyon (2-0) and, most recently, Le Havre (1-5). The first team in the top flight to reach the 20-point mark this season, Paris top the table and will aim to secure their 11th consecutive victory in all competitions before going into the international break.
2 – Troyes are unbeaten in their last two Ligue 1 games (1 win, 1 draw), and haven't had longer streak of the kind since August-September 2022 (3 matches). ESTAC could register a third successive clean sheet in the top flight for the first time since May 2013.
9 – Paris Saint-Germain have won nine of their 11 home games against Troyes in Ligue 1 (2 draws), only hosting Strasbourg (35) and Bastia (29) more times without tasting defeat.
53 – The capital club have scored in each of their last 53 home games in Ligue 1 (134 goals in total, an average of 2.5 per game). No team has enjoyed such a long run since Nice in 1975-1978 (55 games).
In goal, coach Stéphane Dumont will have Hillel Konaté. The Burkina Faso international will be preferred to the Australia international Patrick Beach, and will have the experienced Adrien Monfray (35) ahead of him. The Troyes centre-back forms a strong partnership with Junior Diaz, who is on loan from Brest. The Côte d'Ivoire international has established himself in the first team as has Paolo Gozzi at left-back, where he has filled in for the injured Ismaël Boura and Anis Ouzenadji.
Lucas Maronnier, who came through the Paris Saint-Germain youth academy, is first-choice right-back ahead of Yvann Titi and youngster Noah Donkor (19). Togo international Dermane Karim will play the holding role in midfield with Antoine Mille and Mouhamed Diop slightly further up the pitch. They will keep Alexandre Phliponeau and Iron Gomis out of the starting XI, but the latter - a summer arrival - could feature off the bench.
Up front, Troyes have to contend with a number of injured forwards. Timothé Nkada is sidelined after picking up a knock last week and is unlikely to feature, just like Yacouba Koné, who was injured early in the campaign. Kandet Diawara is set to start on the left with Merwan Ifnaoui on the right.
The former Red Star man is likely to provide the Paris rearguard with their biggest headache along with Renaud Ripart. The former Nîmes man will lead the visitors' line ahead of Jérémy Le Douaron, who has played a supersub role in recent weeks.