‘Enemies’ at  war: Tension mounts ahead Marseille/ PSG clash

Meetings between Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain are often explosive and events of the last seven days add to the tension of Sunday’s latest clash of French football’s biggest rivals.

Marseille’s 67,000-capacity Velodrome will be empty for the game due to Covid-19 restrictions, but the Mediterranean city is still on edge after several hundred supporters attacked the club’s training ground last weekend.

The supporters were demonstrating against poor recent results as well as against the running of the club by president Jacques-Henri Eyraud.

Spanish defender Alvaro Gonzalez was reportedly struck on the back by a projectile as he went to confront the supporters, of whom 25 were arrested. Eight will go on trial later this month.

A crisis is only ever a couple of bad results away at the former Champions League winners, but this has been on another level, with the club’s American owner Frank McCourt likening the attack to the deadly January 6 assault on the US Congress.

Marseille’s game against Rennes last Saturday was postponed, and three days later coach Andre Villas-Boas was suspended by the club — the first step in the legal process of sacking the Portuguese — after he declared at a press conference he wanted to resign.

Read AlaoPolice take in 18 Marseille fans over riot

The former Porto, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur coach was angry that Celtic midfielder Olivier Ntcham had been signed on loan on transfer deadline day against his wishes.

Interim coach Nasser Larguet oversaw Wednesday’s 2-2 draw in Lens, and Marseille, runners-up last season, go into Sunday’s match having slumped to ninth in the table on a run of one win in 10 in all competitions.