Lille (AFP)

Respectively goalkeepers number 2 and 3 in the French team behind the irremovable Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda and Mike Maignan meet for the match between Marseille and Lille on Sunday (9:00 p.m.) for the fourth day of Ligue 1.

A distant duel that could condition the result as much as the future of the two players in the selection, even if their place in the hierarchy should not change in the short term.

For now, Steve Mandanda, 35, is leaving with a head start.

Installed for a long time in the group and endowed with 32 selections, he begins this new season as he finished the previous one: in great shape.

"Steve is a leader in and out of the locker room, a player who inspires us all, a benchmark like no one," praised his coach André Villas-Boas before the game against Saint-Etienne.

- Good dynamics -

If he could not prevent Marseille from losing against ASSE Thursday (0-2), its responsibility is not engaged on goals.

Four days earlier, he had been the hero of the 1-0 victory in Paris by multiplying decisive saves.

"Steve was incredible," said "AVB" in a press conference after the meeting.

An important performance for his club but also a small revenge for him, who had very badly lived the international break.

An administrative error by the staff of the Blues had indeed forced him to leave the group, residual traces of the coronavirus having caused a positive test when he had already developed antibodies.

Mike Maignan, 25, has a much quieter end of summer.

Mandanda's punctual departure did not change his international destiny, with Hugo Lloris keeping the goal against Sweden and Croatia.

Well installed in the group for a year, the native of Cayenne therefore still has no selection in the A.

With Lille, his daily life is also fairly quiet.

If he conceded a goal from Benjamin Da Silva against Rennes in the opening, he suffered only four shots on target in three days, often content to assert his ease in the game on foot.

However, the near future of the Lille doorman is not completely clear.

Always courted abroad, even if interest has dried up for a few weeks, he is one of the players who could pack their bags.

- "Safe from nothing" -

"I am very realistic, the transfer window will end on October 5 and we are not immune to anything," said Christophe Galtier before facing Reims, while Lille presented the Greek Orestis Karnezis, the new understudy of Maignan to this post.

"Our goalkeeper is Mike, I am very happy and in no case did I think of (Stéphane) Ruffier or exchange with him", had assured the Lille coach a week earlier to defuse rumors.

The last time they met in February, Mandanda and Maignan both had a good game.

Under the eyes of Franck Raviot, the coach of the goalkeepers of the France team, OM had won 2-1 and the elder made two beautiful parades in front of Victor Osimhen and Loïc Rémy at the start of the match.

His counterpart had stopped him from a penalty from Valentin Rongier, an exercise in which he shines (9 stops in Ligue 1 since his professional debut).

Leaving the France group because of his poor playing time with Real Madrid, Alphonse Areola hopes to take advantage of his loan to Fulham to return to the race.

But, like Bordeaux's Benoît Costil, who replaced Mandanda at short notice during the last rally, he left with a train behind the two men.

Beyond the stakes in the standings for two European and ambitious teams, this Marseille-Lille will fuel the reflection of Didier Deschamps.

Nine months before the Euro, the situations can still change ...

© 2020 AFP