Marseille hold edge in three-way tussle

Three teams are still vying for Group F's second qualifying place but it is Olympique de Marseille who hold the upper hand and a win at Borussia Dortmund would assure them of second spot. A draw would also be enough as long as Olympiacos FC do not beat section winners Arsenal FC in Piraeus.

• Marseille have seven points, one more than Olympiacos and three ahead of Dortmund. For Dortmund to progress they need to win by at least four goals if Olympiacos lose, or by five goals or more should Olympiacos draw.

• Dortmund's 2-1 defeat in north London on matchday five left them as the outsiders of the three-team struggle. At the same time Marseille were undone at home by a stunning late strike from Olympiacos substitute Giannis Fetfatzidis.

• When these teams met on matchday two – their first competitive fixture – a counterattacking masterclass helped Marseille to a 3-0 win. André Ayew opened the scoring on 20 minutes and then completed the win from the penalty spot after Loïc Rémy had added a second on 62 minutes. The hosts had substitute Jordan Ayew sent off late on.

• Dortmund had opened with a 1-1 home draw against Arsenal, and traded victories against Olympiacos at the midpoint of the campaign, losing 3-1 in Greece before winning 1-0 at home.

• The French side had six points on the board after the first two games, opening with a 1-0 victory in Greece before their Dortmund success. A 1-0 home defeat by Arsenal then deflated some of their optimism before a goalless draw in north London.

Match background
• Dortmund are unbeaten in their six games at home to French opponents, recording three wins and three draws.

• Before this season, Marseille had not locked horns with German opponents since the 1998/99 UEFA Cup when, in a second round tie against SV Werder Bremen, they followed a 1-1 away draw with a 3-2 win at home.

• That was the only time in four visits to Germany that the Frenchmen managed to find the net, their first two trips producing a 6-0 defeat by 1. FC Köln in the 1973/74 UEFA Cup second round and a 3-0 loss to FC Carl Zeiss Jena in the first round of the same competition two years later. The next assignment, against VfB Leipzig in the 1987/88 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round, ended goalless.

Team ties
• Deschamps played for Juventus in the 1997 UEFA Champions League final, when Dortmund – with current sporting director Michael Zorc an 89th-minute substitute – triumphed 3-1 in Munich.

• André-Pierre Gignac and Ivan Perišić scored for their respective sides when Toulouse FC and Club Brugge KV drew 2-2 in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League group stage. Perišić scored the 90th-minute equaliser on that occasion and the Croatian also notched the only goal – again in the final minute – when the teams met in Belgium on 16 December 2009.

• Damien Le Tallec and Stéphane Mbia were team-mates at Stade Rennais FC between 2008 and 2010, although the former never appeared in the French top flight.

• Antonio Da Silva and Elinton Andrade both started their careers at CR Flamengo.

• Mohamed Zidan scored twice for Egypt in their 4-2 victory against a Cameroon side including Mbia in a 2008 Africa Cup of Nations group fixture. Both teams made it through to the final. Mbia played the whole game while Zidan was brought on after the hour to help Egypt to their 1-0 victory.

• Zidan's Egypt were 3-1 winners against a Cameroon side including Nicolas N'Koulou in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.

• Loïc Rémy came on as a substitute for France in a 0-0 friendly draw against a Croatia team featuring Perišić on 29 March this year.

• Rémy was also a second-half replacement in the France team that won 1-0 away to a Poland team including Łukasz Piszczek and Robert Lewandowski on 9 June.