Before the Classique between OM and PSG club, Bruno Genesio’s six wins against the Parisians in Ligue 1
On Sunday at 8:45 pm, for the 5th matchday of Ligue 1 game, Bruno Genesio will experience his first Classique against PSG team at the Vélodrome as OM team coach. With his previous clubs, the 60-year-old coach has defeated the Parisian club six times now, three times with Lyon team and three times with Rennes team. We take a closer look at his six memorable wins.
During his long football coaching career, Bruno Genesio is (60 years old now), who has been in charge of Olympique de Marseille since the beginning of this summer, has already faced PSG club 20 times, including 17 times in Ligue 1 competition. Although he lost in the 3 knockout matches, all three times with Lyon in the year 2016 (in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de la Ligue, with 1-2, and in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France, with 0-3, then in the Trophée des Champions, with 1-4), the Marseille coach, who will therefore experience his first Classique on this Sunday by (8:45 pm) has a very interesting record against PSG club in the league.
In his 17 Ligue 1 matches against the QSI-era Parisian giants, he has lost only 9 matches, with 2 draws and, most importantly, 6 resounding wins (3 with Lyon club, 3 with Rennes club). We recount these wins here, which make him the most successful manager in Ligue 1 against PSG under Qatari ownership (since 2011).
Under the QSI era, i.e. since the summer of 2011, Bruno Genesio is the only team coach to have beaten PSG so many different times in Ligue 1. Christophe Galtier (who won the league title with PSG in the year 2022-2023) also reached this figure, but by including two qualifications in the Cups (one in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de la Ligue game with ASSE in 2012, with 0-0, 5-3 on penalties and the other with Nice in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France, on the January 31, 2022, 0-0, 6-5 on penalties) for 4 wins in Ligue 1 (one with Saint-Étienne in 2012, 2-1, 2 with Lille in 2019, 5-1 and in 2021, 1-0, plus one with Nice, in 2022, 1-0).
Despite multiple significant absences (Grenier, Umtiti, Fekir, Valbuena and Tolisso), OL broke with (2-1) both the fatalism of that season – they had lost 3 out of 3 matches against PSG club (a resounding 1-5 lose in the first leg at the Parc des Princes in Ligue 1, where the team coach was still Hubert Fournier, and then in both Cups, see above ) – and the unbeaten run of Laurent Blanc’s PSG, who remained undefeated for… 36 league matches, including the first 27 matchdays of 2015-2016.
And this was achieved without any possible dispute, with mastery of an aggressive and effective 4-3-3 game formation, where the midfield trio of Darder, Gonalons, and Ferri reigned supreme, particularly in the first half. This complete dominance was rewarded with goals from Maxwel Cornet, and assisted by Alexandre Lacazette (13 minute, with 1-0), and then Darder himself, thanks to a moment of technical brilliance from a Rafael cross (45+ 2, 2-0). Lucas Moura did pull one back shortly after the break in (51 minute, 2-1), but the Parisians club, who would ultimately be crowned champions by a wide margin, were never truly able to mount a comeback. Genesio’s first major coup.
OL-PSG, with 2-1, January 21, 2018: Depay’s “banger”
A little less than two years later, with Spaniard Unai Emery now at the helm of a PSG team that was leading the league (and would go on to become the champion), the Lyon team coach and his team pulled off another stunning upset with (2-1), which at that point allowed them to reclaim second place after 22 matchdays. Admittedly, the Lyon, who would finish third position, benefited from the absence of Neymar, who was suffer from a thigh injury after a spectacular performance against Dijon with (8-0, four goals, and two assists in four days, on January 17, 2018 ), then from the premature exit of Kylian Mbappé following a violent collision with Anthony Lopes in (30 minute), as well as the foolish sending-off of Dani Alves in (57 minute, second yellow card for dissent).
OL-PSG, 2-1, February 3, in 2019: PSG overturned
The Parisian coach had changed again, with Thomas Tuchel taking over in the summer in 2018 to succeed Unai Emery. He arrived at the Groupama Stadium as an unbeaten league leader after 20 matches in Ligue 1 with (18 wins, 2 draws), but once again without Neymar, who had suffered another metatarsal fracture. And as Accapredict headlined the following day, ” Lyon devours the stars ,” despite Angel Di Maria’s early opening goal, set up by Julian Draxler in (7 minute with 0-1).
Rennes -PSG, 2-0, in October 3, 2021: the Di Maria-Messi-Neymar-Mbappé quartet sunk
Genesio definitely likes to break Parisian streaks. That season, in which he would reclaim his championship title and left to Lille in 2021 , Mauricio Pochettino’s PSG had won their first eight Ligue 1 matches competitions, when they arrived at Roazhon Park, at a Rennes side that was then languishing in mid-table, with only two matches wins.
Rennes-PSG, 1-0, on January 15, 2023: Genesio outclasses Galtier
“The MNM drowned,” was the headline of one of the articles in AccaPredict the following day. This time without Angel Di Maria (who left to Juventus in the summer of 2022), but with a Messi-Neymar-Mbappé trio (who came on in the 56 minute) exhausted by the World Cup competition in Qatar, PSG suffered their second lose of the season (1-0) . Organized in a 5-4-1 ball formation without the ball and in a 3-4-3, with particularly effective wing-backs, Adrien Truffert on the left and Hamari Traoré on the right, Genesio’s team made the difference.
