Paris-Lille: The preview
Men's football•
Join us as we look ahead to Friday's Ligue 1 Matchday 18 encounter with Les Dogues at the Parc des Princes (9pm CET).
Damien Mittereau
It's a Ligue 1 heavyweight that's en route to the capital. Fourth in the league, Lille put pressure on third-placed Marseille with a four-game winning run - PFC (4-2), Le Havre (0-1), Marseille (1-0) and Auxerre (3-4) - before they were beaten 2-0 by Rennes after playing with ten men for much of the game.
Paris Saint-Germain want to try and apply pressure on leaders Lens, who are just a point ahead after the capital club defeated Rennes in December (5-0) and followed that up with victories in Metz (2-3) and against PFC in their last league game (2-1).
6 – Paris have won six of their last seven league games.
9 – The duo have both found the net in each of their last 9 meetings.
21 – The Rouge et Bleu have won 21 of their last 25 Ligue 1 home matches, losing only once.
Berke Özer is likely to start in goal. Alexsandro will be the defensive linchpin with either Nathan Ngoy or Chancel Mbemba alongisde the Brazil international. Knocked out of the Nations Cup with Algeria, Aïssa Mandi could return to the matchday squad.
On the right side, Thomas Meunier or Tiago Santos should play with Romain Perraud preferred to Calvin Verdonk on the opposite site. Benjamin André is a doubt to captain the side due to a shoulder injury so Ayyoub Bouaddi could have either Nabil Bentaleb or Ngal'ayel Mukau alongside him in midfield.
André Gomes and Ethan Mbappé are other potential options. Hákon Arnar Haraldsson will dictate things a little higher up the pitch along with Matías Fernández-Pardo on the left side of the attack.
On the right, Félix Correia has made the position his own, relegating Osame Sahraoui and Marius Broholm to the substitutes' bench. Through the middle, Hamza Igamane remains a doubt, so former France international forward Olivier Giroud is likely to start.