Marseille take on Norwich City in a pre-season friendly at Stade Parsemain on Saturday.
The French side will be hoping for a strong summer ahead of competing in the Champions League once again this season, while Norwich are aiming to bounce back to the Premier League at the first attempt.
Match preview
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After finishing a distant fifth in the 2020-21 Ligue 1 campaign, things were finally looking up again for Marseille having secured a solid runners-up position last season.
However, former Chile boss Jorge Sampaoli chose to depart the club earlier this month, having allegedly been disappointed by a lack of transfer activity ahead of their return to Champions League football.
Former Juventus defender Igor Tudor, who guided Hellas Verona to a respectable ninth-placed finish in Serie A last season, has succeeded the 2015 Copa America winner at the helm of Les Olympiens.
On the surface, investment looks healthy at the club given that they have already spent around £40m this summer. However, only 19-year-old defender Isaak Toure truly represents fresh blood, with Matteo Guendouzi, Cengiz Under, Pau Lopez and Arkadiusz Milik all turning their successful loan spells from last season into permanent deals.
Boubacar Kamara and Steve Mandanda have both departed the club on free transfers, meaning further incomings will surely be required if Marseille are to close the gap on Paris Saint-Germain and compete for the Ligue 1 title.
In reality, though, simply consolidating a Champions League qualification position would be far from a disaster in Tudor's first season in charge.
Two upcoming friendlies against likely Championship promotion contenders in the form of Norwich and Middlesbrough should provide an early indication of the southern France side's current shape, before they go on to face even sterner tests against Real Betis and AC Milan ahead of their Ligue 1 campaign kicking off against Reims on August 7.
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One can only imagine what Sampaoli would have made of Norwich's transfer window had he been in Dean Smith's shoes at Carrow Road.
The Canaries' only addition so far this summer has been attracting Newcastle United midfielder Isaac Hayden on a season-long loan, with the 27-year-old potentially offering battling qualities which were largely absent on the pitch last season, culminating in yet another meek relegation from the Premier League.
However, Norwich have been in this exact position many times in recent years. Indeed, of their three previous relegations since the 2013-14 campaign, the East Anglian side have twice bounced back to England's top flight at the first attempt, and they were promoted in their third Championship season on the other occasion.
There is little doubting Smith has the quality and experience at his disposal to navigate a similarly successful season this time around. Todd Cantwell and Onel Hernandez, who were both a part of former boss Daniel Farke's two Championship-winning campaigns, have returned from loan spells at Bournemouth and Middlesbrough respectively and have already made notable impressions in pre-season.
A strong financial footing has also allowed Norwich to rebuff offers for their talismanic forward Teemu Pukki, who is a guaranteed goal machine at Championship level even at 32-years-old, while there is hope for the likes of Milot Rashica, Joshua Sargent and Christos Tzolis to improve after difficult first seasons in England.
Saturday's trip to France should provide the ultimate challenge ahead of domestic friendlies against Cambridge United, Celtic and Hibernian, but there is every indication that Norwich will be ready to hit the ground running when they face Cardiff City in their Championship opener on July 30.
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Team News
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Bamba Dieng will hope to receive the nod ahead of Cedric Bakambu in attack after firing a superb second-half hat-trick in a 4-1 friendly win against Marignane Gignac on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old, who scored seven league goals last season, looked a real livewire after entering the fray, with Under particularly enjoying threading through balls in behind for the pacey striker to latch onto.
Leonardo Balerdi is likely to miss most of pre-season with the shoulder injury he sustained in March, meaning Tudor's compatriot Duje Caleta-Car should partner Luan Peres and new signing Toure in a three-man defence.
Norwich, meanwhile, were dealt a huge blow when new signing Hayden was forced to have a "minor operation" on the knee injury which has kept him out of action since December 2021.
Smith admitted he does not expect to see the midfielder return to action "before the early part of the season" after his first week of training caused swelling on the area.
Republic of Ireland striker Adam Idah is also unlikely to feature before the start of the new season due to a serious knee injury of his own, which was sustained in February earlier this year.
Smith could elect to name the same XI which dispatched local non-league side King's Lynn 2-0 in a friendly on Tuesday, with Pukki and Tzolis both on the scoresheet at The Walks.
Marseille possible starting lineup:
Lopez; Toure, Caleta-Car, Peres; Rongier, Guendouzi, Gueye, Kolasinac; Payet, Under; Dieng
Norwich City possible starting lineup:
Krul; Aarons, Omobamidele, Hanley, Giannoulis; Sorensen, McLean; Hernandez, Sinani, Tzolis; Pukki
We say: Marseille 2-1 Norwich City
We expect to see a closely-fought affair in France on Saturday, with Norwich boosted by being a little further down the line in terms of their pre-season preparations.
However, Marseille's superior quality should prove telling in the end, with Tudor able to call on a range of options from the bench should the game not be going in his side's favour at any stage of proceedings.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Brett Curtis
