LIVESTREAM France: Marseille Blue Stars @ Toulouse Ours, April 27, 19:00 CET (7 pm, 1 pm EDT)

AFI | American Football | 04/27/2024

Graphic: Igor Lazarevic

The Toulouse Ours (2-4) will play host to the conference leading Marseille Blue Stars (5-0-1) Saturday, April 27 as the French D1 Elite league continues into the second half of the season.

The Ours have won two games in a row after dropping their first four. They defeated the Aix Argonautes 14-13 after beating the Cannes Iron Mask 14-10. They fell 20-9 to the Nice Dauphins and 30-6 to the Grizzlys Catalans after opening the season with two straight losses to Marseille 22-7 and to the Aix Argonautes 21-13.

The Blue Stars have won five games this season and tied another. Marseille beat the Aix Argonauts 34-6 and Toulouse 22-7 and followed that up by downing the Nice Dauphins 13-7 before blanking the Cannes Irons Mask 29-0. In back to back meetings with the Grizzlys Catalans, Marseille took the first one 28-20 and then tied the other 14-14.

Both Toulouse quarterbacks have struggled with Norman Douglas Jr having thrown for 320 yards and two scores and Nicolas Diaz 121 and three touchdowns. They will need to step up against an aggressive Marseille secondary today.

Blue Stars quarterback Hadrian Lynda is the second leading passer in the league having thrown for 1,077 yards and eight touchdowns. Vincent Monteiro has caught 26 passes for 331 yads and Pedro Rosa 33 for 306.

This is an important game for both teams. Toulouse needs a win to have any chance at all of grabbing the final playoff spot while the Blue Stars need to stay ahead of the Grizzlys to be sure of a first round bye in the playoffs.