Marseille (AFP)

Beware of the slope! After a superb first half of the season, the road rises for Olympique de Marseille, traveling to almost all of its competitors for the podium, starting with Rennes on Friday (8:45 p.m.) for the 20th day of Ligue 1.

For the dolphin of Paris SG, the program gets harder during the return matches and André Villas-Boas has been hammering it for several weeks.

"The coach reminded us again this morning in training," said Valentin Rongier on Wednesday. "We know the importance of the end of January, and the middle of February."

After Rennes (3rd), his immediate pursuer, OM (2nd) will go to Bordeaux (22nd day), Saint-Étienne (23rd day), Lille (25th day) ...

Marseille approaches this program with a small mattress, five points ahead of Rennes, who have a late match, and seven over Lille (4th), and with real momentum: 22 points taken out of 24 at the end of 2019.

- "Outside, the pressure rises" -

"We are on a good dynamic and confidence reigns in the group", continues Rongier. "We mustn't lose that, no matter what the outcome of this weekend's game and the next matches."

"We have to keep up the pace," continues Villas-Boas. The Portuguese stresses that all the lights are green, "the atmosphere is good, the press is favorable, the supporters give us everything ... But we cannot relax".

And then after a painful 2018-2019 season, and a slow start, OM now has a new status.

"We have to manage this", continues "AVB", "it's easier when you have small goals: + We can be 2nd if we win this match +, things that we used when we were in the position of other."

This time OM is the escaped runner chased by the peloton.

And the coach knows that "culturally, at OM, we ignite. There, I hope not. Now we play Rennes, and after Angers (at the Vélodrome), Bordeaux, and Saint-Etienne ..."

Later, Marseille will also have to go to Lyon (33rd day), its great rival.

"It's true that outside the pressure is mounting a bit and it's up to us to respond," warns Villas-Boas, but the former coach of Porto and Chelsea does not want to "skip steps" and take "match after match".

- Rennes has raised the bar -

And all the same, these opponents, Marseille beat them all at the Vélodrome in a two-way outward phase on average (38 pts), except Rennes (1-1).

To get to Roazhon Park, Villas-Boas picks up his goalkeeper and captain Steve Mandanda, recovered from his ankle injury, but loses Hiroki Sakai, suspended after his red against Trélissac in the Coupe de France, where his team went through a crack door (1-1, 4 shots on goal 2) against an amateur club (National 2).

Rennes, holding the trophy, also suffered to pass, but against a Ligue 1 team, Amiens (0-0, 5-4 tab). Still, the Britons are also in good shape with a series of five league wins that brought them back to the podium.

Their young coach Julien Stephan has raised the bar after a difficult period, including a poor elimination in the Europa League.

The very young Eduardo Camavinga (17), who likes Villas-Boas very much, is exploding, and OM have beaten Rennes only twice in the last nine confrontations, all competitions combined.

In this return phase, OM will only receive Monaco and Nantes among its potential competitors on the podium. And PSG (30th day) for a "Classic" that it has not won in eight long years.

But in this series of passes, the dream of finding the Champions League passes first through Rennes ...

© 2020 AFP