On Saturday in Béziers (19h00), OM will play their final friendly match before the Champions Trophy game against PSG on Wednesday. Four internationals will play one half and the squad will be rotated once again.
The training camp at Saint-Jean-de-Luz will come to a close on Friday night with the Olympians undertaking their final session at the municipal stadium of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. As of Saturday morning they will be heading to Béziers. Apart from the gala match against Valencia for the RLD Trophy, the encounter that they will play against Catania will be the final friendly match of pre-season. The preparation period is moving into its final phase.
The principal attraction against the Sicilians? The return of four of OM’s six internationals who played in the World Cup. Mandanda, Valbuena, Taiwo and A. Ayew will play 45 minutes on Saturday. For the rest, the coach will continue to rotate the squad. There will be a lot of changes in comparison to the match lost against TFC (2-4) in Bayonne. “There will be a different team out on the field. Some of those who took part on Wednesday may play as well, stated the coach after the training session. Over the course of the two matches we need to have the majority of the squad with a certain amount of playing time. Some will already have played against Toulouse and the international players will play a half, except Stéphane”.
The four internationals will play one half of the match
Four big names will come back to strengthen all sectors of play and bring about a question. Will they be ready for the Champions Trophy match on Wednesday in Tunis against Paris?
“They have a week of work behind them and they need some playing time so that they will be of use against Paris, replies Deschamps, they came back in good shape, without any weight gain but they haven’t had a great deal of time to work, especially as they put in a lot of hard work at the start of the week with three sessions per day for the first three days”.
Apart from these four players, the objective remains the same as at the start of the training camp: That the entire group plays in one of the two matches against Toulouse or Catania. “We will juggle between the two matches with Wednesday’s encounter in mind without focusing solely on that which would put us in trouble at the start of the league season” announces the Marseille manager. There will be places up for grabs in Tunis.
OM-Catania
In Béziers at 19h00
Live text and photos from Bayonne on OM.net
Shown on Canal+ Sport at 21h55
After the projection on C+ Sport available on OMtv and OMtv online
