the invincibility of PSG, two clashes between contenders for Europe, the fierce fight to maintain… The stakes of the 15th day

Last championship weekend before six weeks. While Didier Deschamps announced his list of 25 Blues on Wednesday, November 9, and unofficially launched the World Cup in Qatar, the Talent League offers itself a last outing before December 28. The opportunity to come back to the challenges of this very special 15th day, which begins on Friday November 11, and which concludes the first part of the season for clubs in Ligue 1.

PSG want to keep their invincibility

Led by their Messi-Neymar-Mbappé trio since August (29 goals and 27 assists between them in Ligue 1), PSG are already certain of concluding this first phase at the top of the championship since they are five points ahead of his lensois dauphin. But while the vast majority of its workforce is to fly to Qatar in the coming days and could, for fear of a fatal injury, ease off a bit when receiving Auxerre on Sunday, coach Christophe Galtier will probably be keen to extend the club’s unbeaten streak.

Paris is indeed the last team of the five major championships not to have experienced defeat in all competitions this season. Better, the capital club has not bowed since 30 games (23 wins, seven draws) and is only seven games away from the best series in its history, established between August 1993 and April 1994.

Two shocks for the podium

Behind Paris, Lens is fueled in this first part of the season. So much so that the team led by Franck Haise is five points ahead of Stade Rennes, third, and six over Marseille, Monaco and Lorient. The clash between Monegasques and Marseillais on Sunday evening will therefore be crucial in the race for the podium and for Europe. With three potentially titular French internationals (Youssouf Fofana on the ASM side, Mattéo Guendouzi and Jordan Veretout on the OM side), the show should be there at Louis-II. Especially since Wissam Ben Yedder and Jonathan Clauss, not summoned, will have a great opportunity to prove to Didier Deschamps that he was wrong not to invite them to the World Cup.

Before that, Nice will be in Lyon on Friday for another great duel on paper. Even if the two clubs, scheduled to play for the podium, are still stuck in the middle of the table after a feverish start to the season, they can legitimately look higher. Laurent Blanc’s OL have set themselves the goal of scoring the most points until the break, before worrying about finding a game identity, and must get back on their feet after tripping over the carpet at Marseille last week (0-1). For its part, Nice has not lost since November 1 (1-0 defeat in Paris).

Red alert at the bottom of the ranking

Apart from Angers who are guaranteed to stay in the last four positions before the arrival of Lille on Sunday, all the other formations in the red zone are likely to come out. Only four points separate Troyes (13th with 14 pts) from Ajaccio and Brest (18th and 19th with 10 pts). Precisely, two clashes between unfortunate candidates for relegation will take place during the multiplex on Sunday. Nantes will host Ajaccio without defender Nicolas Pallois, suspended. At the same time, Troyes will go to Brest.

But Auxerre (15th), which faces PSG, and Montpellier (14th), which has been idling for a while (four points in nine games), can legitimately fear for their position in the standings. While Strasbourg, which has won only one match in Ligue 1, also risks sinking in the event of a bad result against Lorient (6th), far from all these questions by making the best start to the season in its history, and for whom the maintenance mission now seems well underway with 27 points taken in 14 meetings.