Saturday 8 November 2014 14:25, UK
Zlatan Ibrahimovic could return from injury in time to take his place in arguably the biggest French 'Clasico' in recent seasons.
Ibrahimovic's Paris Saint-Germain will host Marseille on Sunday hoping to narrow a four-point gap to the league leaders.
The Sweden striker has been out since September 21 with a heel injury, but PSG posted pictures on their website of him taking part in training with the caption "Encouraging signs ahead of the clasico".
Meetings between these two are always huge, but until this season Marseille had been so far off the pace set by PSG that the fixture was in danger of losing some of its lustre.
But with Marcelo Bielsa's OM side off to a hot start, Sunday evening's clash is hotly anticipated.
"The reputation of this 'Clasico' is global," Bielsa said in L'Equipe. "There is huge hype surrounding this game and the impact of the result is necessarily greater.
"PSG is a great team with high-profile players and everybody knows about the them. The prestige of the team increases the interest in this game."
PSG were guilty of throwing away too many points early this season, and have drawn six of their opening 12 league matches, but will come into Sunday's match on the back of three league wins and having wrapped up progression to the next round of the Champions League with a 1-0 win over Apoel Nicosia on Wednesday night.
"The fans expect a lot from this game," defender Maxwell said on the PSG website. "After this match I hope we can take the three points as we have done before. I think we have regained our confidence and this fixture comes at the perfect time."
And if the respective league positions of the two teams did not give this match enough of an edge already, the likely return of Ibrahimovic only adds another layer of intrigue.
"We try to focus on our qualities," said Bielsa, who fully expects the PSG man to play. "Ibrahimovic does not affect the way we play. Our preparation is the same as usual."
