AC Ajaccio - Olympique de Marseille

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Mathieu Valbuena's sparkling display helped France overcome their 2-0 first-leg deficit to beat Ukraine 3-0 at the Stade de France on Tuesday evening and earn a place at next summer's World Cup finals. The diminutive attacking midfielder, who himself admitted to a dip in form prior to the international break, will be the creative hub of the OM side at the Stade François Coty with Elie Baup - in his 500th Ligue 1 game - aiming to stretch his team's unbeaten run to three matches.After a run of three straight league losses - and five successive reverses in all competitions - OM stemmed the tide with a draw at Stade Rennais FC before securing a 2-1 victory over FC Sochaux-Montbéliard last time out.

"Before the game against Sochaux, the objective was to pick up the three points, we did that," said Benoît Cheyrou. "Now, not everything was perfect, but the important thing was to win. Before that game we'd been on a catastrophic run, our situation wasn't very comfortable. We had to win because we knew the international break would allow us to work well, recoup some energy and for the international players to be able to focus on other objectives. We head off again on Friday to pick up points in Ajaccio and regain momentum."
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Good omens

The omens are good with OM enjoying a better record in meetings at the Stade François Coty than their Corsican hosts. The Ayew brothers, André and Jordan, both struck in last season's 2-0 win there, though Baup will be without the former this time after he sustained a meniscus injury that requires surgery while on international duty with Ghana; his expected eight-week absence will be keenly felt.

However, Florian Thauvin, whose early opener against Sochaux was his second strike in three league outings, has started to show the sort of form he displayed in Corsica at SC Bastia last season, and though he can expect a raucous welcome, the French Under-21 international will - along with André-Pierre Gignac, the matchwinner against Sochaux - provide most threat to the hosts.
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Instability

It is not only their opponents who have caused Ajaccio problems this season. The abrupt end to Fabrizio Ravanelli's 12-game reign, in which the side won just a single league game, did not help improve stability at a club which has seen three coaches come and go in little more than a season.Interim coach Christian Bracconi's first game in charge ended in a valiant 1-1 draw at Toulouse FC, and the club's former youth academy director must now turn his attention to improving his team's woeful home form. That will surely come if he can give his attack teeth. No team has scored fewer goals this season than Ajaccio, and with not even the excellent Guillermo Ochoa able to keep out everything at the opposite end, Bracconi's men have struggled, and are winless in five.

They will also be without former OM men Ronald Zubar and Benoît Pedretti, who are both injured, hardly welcome absences as they hope to keep the visitors' vaunted attacking talents at bay. "There's Thauvin, Valbuena, Gignac, Payet. They have great attacking potential. They're dangerous," Bracconi explained. "We have to have the intention of going forward, more than merely the players we put in the side. We can't stay up if we don't show more up front, without scoring more goals. We need to be more attacking to put our opponents in danger."

He added: "We're at home, we need points, we need to win. With our spirit and a certain degree of refound confidence, our idea is to get at OM. We absolutely must not allow ourselves to be walked all over at home."
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Probable teams

Ajaccio: Ochoa; Hengbart, Tonucci, Perozo, Bonnart; Pierazzi, Lasne; André, Cavalli, Mutu; Eduardo

Marseille: Mandanda; Abdallah, Nkoulou, Diawara, Morel; Romao, Cheyrou; Thauvin, Valbuena, Payet; J. Ayew