Ligue 1 Preview: Ajaccio v PSG

Zlatan Ibrahimovic will fancy his chances of continuing his rich vein of goalscoring form when Paris Saint-Germain meet Ajaccio on Saturday.

The Sweden international striker’s midweek hat-trick heroics in the 5-2 Coupe de France win over Brest took him to 24 goals in his last 15 competitive matches for PSG.

Next up is the opportunity for Ibrahimovic to net against bottom-of-the-table Ajaccio for the first time and his recent exploits suggest that could happen this weekend as Ligue 1 leaders PSG look to set the pace ahead of Monaco and Lille.

Laurent Blanc’s side have only lost once in the league this season and, although PSG had to rescue a point in their last league outing against Lille prior to the winter break, the defending champions will be confident of returning to winning ways in Corsica.

Ajaccio have one league win to their name this season, which came against Lyon in September, and are currently on a 12-game run without a victory in the French top flight.

Things looked set to get even worse when they trailed to minnows Quimperle, six leagues below them, in Sunday’s Coupe de France meeting, but Ajaccio battled back to win 2-1.

Victory over Brest in the club’s first competitive game after the mid-season break meant PSG booked their place in the last 16 of the same competition as they continued their fight for silverware on four fronts.

And Blanc is confident his squad can handle the pressure – starting at Ajaccio.

“My team knows how we want to play, what to do when you have the ball,” he said after the cup win. “There is a lot of serenity and trust, the players adhere to the philosophy.

“We must find the taste and spirit of competition, and be competitive.”

There are positives for interim Ajaccio coach Christian Bracconi to work with, though.

Ajaccio have drawn their last three meetings with PSG and were within four minutes of securing a memorable victory when the two clubs met in the second weekend of the season.

Benoit Pedretti had given Ajaccio a ninth-minute lead at the Parc des Princes, but the visitors had to settle for a point due to Edinson Cavani’s late equaliser.

Bracconi has five players unavailable for the clash, including forward Dennis Oliech (back) and Pedretti (calf), while PSG only have concerns over Marco Verratti (groin) and Christophe Jallet (back).