Marseille, on 72 points with three games left in the Ligue 1 season will be crowned champions if they beat Rennes at home and second-placed Auxerre, five points off the pace, do not win at Olympique Lyon.
Nobody has bridged a five-point gap at the top of Ligue 1 with three games remaining but that did not seem to calm OM's sports director Jose Anigo.
"There is so much fear (at Marseille), you cannot imagine," Anigo told the club's website.
"There are so much expectations. We have been waiting for this for 17 years. And for a club like ours, every year without a title counts for 10."
"For many, we are already champions," said midfielder Edouard Cisse. "But we would like to be mathematically champions."
Against Rennes, Marseille are expected to rely on their sturdy defence, perfectly marshalled by Cameroon's Stephane Mbia.
"We are more efficient in defence than we used to be," coach Didier Deschamps, the last OM captain to lift the champions' trophy, said last week.
"We have our fate in our hands (for third place). If we win all our remaining matches, we will be in the Champions League (play-off)," midfielder Jeremy Toulalan told Lyon's website.
