After a poor start this season, a seven-game winning streak has put Marseille back on track and fifth on the table, while another victory would help them leapfrog fourth-ranked Lyon, who earlier this season sent the 2010 champions crashing to the bottom of Ligue 1.
Both clubs set up another major game this week when they qualified for the League Cup final, with Lyon hoping to clinch their first trophy since 2008 and holders Marseille to win the trophy for the third time in a row.
But Didier Deschamps' side suffered a big blow when Mathieu Valbuena was sent off during Marseille's semi-final against Nice, having already lost the Ayew brothers to the Africa Cup of Nations and sold playmaker Lucho Gonzalez to Porto in the last days of the transfer window.
"I regret the referee's harshness. I know there are rules, but here the rules are stupidly and strictly applied," a fuming Deschamps told France Television.
