Marseille and Monaco parade World Cup stars
Posted: Thursday November 05, 1998 02:00 PM
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France defender Laurent Blanc will line up for Marseille at the Velodrome Shaun Botterill/Allsport |
PARIS, France (Reuters) -- Olympique Marseille's World Cup
heroes will be on show when the French league leaders entertain
Monaco on Friday.
France defender Laurent Blanc and forwards Christophe
Dugarry and Robert Pires will line up for a near full strength
Marseille at the 60,000 Velodrome.
Fourth-placed Monaco should be able to include their three
French World Cup stars, Fabien Barthez in goal and strikers
Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet, although their top scorer
Trezeguet missed the 3-1 victory over Nantes last weekend.
The six are among only eight France-based players from Aime
Jacquet's victorious World Cup squad, the others being Paris St
Germain goalkeeper Bernard Lama and AJ Auxerre winger Bernard
Diomede.
Marseille, however, have depended largely for their goals on
two players who narrowly missed out on the World Cup finals --
Fabrizio Ravanelli of Italy and Frenchman Florian Maurice.
Ravanelli has scored twice in each of Marseille's last two
games and joins Bordeaux's Sylvain Wiltord as the first
division's top scorers with seven goals apiece.
Goalkeeper Barthez (left) and striker Henry should play in Monaco's match Friday Ben Radford/Allsport | |
Maurice's tally is five, one more than Trezeguet.
Monaco's 4-0 UEFA Cup victory over AK Graz on Tuesday will
have put them in a better frame of mind for the Velodrome clash
than Marseille, who struggled to beat Werder Bremen of Germany
3-2 despite a scintillating performance from another of its
brilliant forwards, Guinea's Titi Camara.
"We have to go there with a positive morale," Monaco
playmaker Franck Gava said. "We have nothing to lose and
everything to win."
Marseille coach Rolland Courbis, who has midfielder Eric Roy
injured and veteran Daniel Bravo suspended, said: "I prefer
welcoming Monaco with a seven point advantage as we can afford a
mistake -- an possibility Monaco no longer have."
His Monaco counterpart and fellow Marseillais Jean Tigana
has several players nursing injuries with right back Willy
Sagnol the most doubtful.
"Marseille are the top team at the moment and it's evident
we're not at their level given our (injury) problems...you can
see that in the standings," Tigana said.
Second-placed Bordeaux are at home to Toulouse on Saturday
when third-placed Rennes welcome bottom club Sochaux.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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