OM regain second place in Ligue 1. Frédéric Chambert / PANORAMIC
Without being flamboyant, Olympique de Marseille won 2-0 on the lawn of Clermont Foot. Thanks to this victory, OM are five points behind PSG.
At the end of a particular match, started more than 45 minutes late due to tear gas present in the air after “clashes outside the stadium», OM ended up winning 0-2 against Clermont thanks to a double from Alexis Sanchez (44e81e). The Marseillais take second place in the championship and come back to five points behind PSG, beaten earlier by Monaco.
As usual, Marseille wanted to take the initiative in the game by taking control of the ball and settling in the Clermont camp. The locals had a lot of trouble getting out cleanly and positioned themselves very low on the pitch. But the first spark came from the local side, with a nice shot from Cham deflected for a corner by Lopez (13e, 0-0). Little by little, Pascal Gastien’s men regained ground and even opened the scoring through Kyei, before the intervention of the VAR for an offside position (23e, 0-0). The Clermontois continued to push and hoped to obtain a penalty on a missed exit from Lopez. By clearing his fist, the OM goalkeeper touched Wieteska’s head, but no fault according to referee Ruddy Buquet (28e, 0-0). A highlight without concluding for Clermont which will be fatal. Marseille gradually regained control of the ball, before obtaining a penalty from a free kick from Malinovsky deflected by the hand of Muhammed Cham. Alexis Sanchez took it upon himself to conclude just before half-time, taking his tally to eight in the league this season (44e0-1).
Alexis Sanchez for the double
At the break, Igor Tudor immediately made a triple substitution. Kaboré quickly distinguished himself with a nice shot on the crossbar (49e, 0-1). The Burkinabe was on his left side, and even caused Allevinah’s yellow card on a poorly controlled tackle (52e, 0-1). But it was cold in Clermont tonight, much colder than in the Vélodrome volcano facing Paris two days earlier. The Marseillais had trouble putting on their usual intensity. It must be said that the match was interrupted by faults (25 in total), with seven yellow cards distributed. The Clermontois had one last opportunity in the Marseille area (78e, 0-1) before finally cracking thanks to Alexis Sanchez’s double. Clauss makes a great call on the right side before sending a very good cross for Sanchez. The Chilean takes the lead but Diaw intervenes with a high class save. Unfortunately for him, the ball rebounds on the bar and arrives again on the head of Sanchez who, this time, scores for the break (81e0-2).