After a disastrous week, Olympique de Marseille found its smile again Tuesday night against Rennes, greatly helped by the absence of VAR and Rennes' defensive generosity. Before traveling to Paris on Sunday to challenge Paris Saint-Germain, the Marseillais want to believe, but are aware that the task promises to be very complicated.

Capable of toppling leader Lens two weeks after losing at home to Nantes, albeit reduced to 10 men, OM was outclassed by Bruges last Wednesday and shamefully eliminated from the Champions League by a last-second goalkeeper's goal for Benfica against Real Madrid. OM then brought back a disappointing draw from Jean Bouin after leading 2-0 against Paris FC.

On Monday, OM players, along with their directors and coach, had a meeting with their supporter groups. A meeting to "say things straight" and give Tuesday night's match against Rennes a decisive character. Thanks to two goals early in the first and second half, OM finally qualified quite easily for the Coupe de France quarterfinals and even added a third goal at the end, thanks to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, well-served by Mason Greenwood, author of the game's second goal.

But OM could have had a completely different evening if its new signing Ethan Nwaneri had been sent off in the 22nd minute after a nasty tackle on Glen Kamara, who would come off injured a few minutes later. The English attacking midfielder, on loan from Arsenal, only received a yellow card, and VAR did not intervene as it is not in place at this stage of the competition.

Regarding Roberto De Zerbi's choices, the Italian decided to set up his team in a 4-2-3-1 rather than a 3-4-3: "I was afraid before the match of being a bit too unbalanced, with four attackers and a full-back pushing up. And in the end, we didn't concede a shot," confided the Marseille coach in the post-match press conference. "We have a strange team, which is hard to understand. When you play with one more defender, you concede three goals. And when you play with four attackers, a full-back pushing up, you don't concede a shot..."

As in previous rounds, Jeffrey de Lange started in the Marseille goal, and the Dutch goalkeeper didn't have much to do but exuded serenity, which hasn't really been the case with his competitor, Geronimo Rulli, for several weeks. Could this lead to another start for De Lange against PSG?

"Everyone can start on Sunday. I have shown that. Even De Lange can start," De Zerbi replied Tuesday night, before adding: "Rulli is in a complicated moment, but he has never had a bad attitude. He doesn't underestimate matches, he doesn't underestimate work, and he is always professional. Sometimes he makes mistakes; it happens to everyone, but he has also performed many miracles since he's been here, but that doesn't mean De Lange can't play on Sunday."

Speaking about Sunday's match, De Zerbi again praised PSG, a team he admires: "I believe PSG is the strongest team in Europe. I'm not just saying that because they won the last Champions League, but because I sincerely believe it," admitted the Italian coach, who however does not plan to go to the Parc des Princes on vacation: "I can tell you what you want to hear, but those are just words. So we will have to go onto the pitch with the same focus as tonight against Rennes, with the same hunger as in Kuwait (for the Trophee des Champions/French Super Cup), but with more quality than tonight because my players have the quality to do better than tonight. Then, the ambition to win in Paris, we must all have it."

Author of the first goal of the match, but also of a huge miss in the second half that earned him whistles upon his substitution, Amine Gouiri also discussed Sunday's "Le Classique" in the mixed zone: "Of course, we respect them, but after that it's a different match, it's the Classico. As you said, we have already looked them in the eyes twice this season. We won at the Velodrome; it had been a while since we had done that. We gave the victory to the supporters at the Velodrome, and we were 10 seconds away from giving them a trophy in the second Classico. But, well, after that, it's football. We have the heart to go up there and go for the victory."

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