Paris Saint-Germain – Olympique Marseille: Le Classique Launches PSG’s Next Step? (1-0)

Pride was on the line: the league champions made their bow in front of the home crowd in one of France's fiercest rivalries. Such pressure did not deter Christopher Galtier from plunging into an experimental test whose end product could add another string to PSG's extensive bow.

Tactical analysis and match report by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

The expectation is for PSG to render the opening to the campaign a formality year in, year out. Their latest efforts have been far closer to that standard. Yet to lose a match, they have won eight of their first ten fixtures in Ligue 1, where they sit at the top of the pile—one point ahead of their nearest challengers Lorient. But above all, the champions have drawn acclaim for the transformation of their offense. Affairs off the field remain highly fraught, but the three star names have shone in unison.

Third in the table were Marseille, only three points behind the summit. Jorge Sampaoli steered the club back on track to the Champions League, but within a year and a half of his arrival in the dugout, the manager parted ways with his employers. Igor Tudor stepped into the void at the start of July, keen to build on the work of his predecessor. Avoiding domestic defeat in the first two months of this season, he . . .