Both Konrad de la Fuente and Tim Weah started for their teams but things couldn’t have gone more differently with Marseille winning in style, while Lille stumbled again.
Marseille 4 – 1 Lorient
Konrad de la Fuente got the nod and put in a 75 minute shift as his OM came away with four goals, thanks to a Matteo Guendouzi brace and others from Boubacar Kamara and Arkadiusz Milik as they came from behind against Lorient.
The visitors Stephane Diarra was tripped up as he got into the box and the referee immediately pointed to the spot. Armand Laurienté put the ball on the spot and sent the Marseille keeper the wrong way to take the lead after just 13 minutes.
Another 14 minutes passed before it was all square again. Arsenal loanee Guendouzi got possession on the right flank and picked out Kamara who was at the top of the box. His shot looked stoppage but a deflection wrong footed Paul Nardi between the sticks and all he could do was watch it find the back of his net.
The second half started with Lorient on the front foot where they had a couple of very good opportunities but good defending and better goal keeping kept the ball from crossing the goal line.
Guendouzi, having provided one in the first half, scored his first of the second half in the 58th minute. It came from a corner kick that Nardi really should have taken care of but he was too far off his line and gave himself no chance.
For goal number three, Dmitri Payet charged down the middle of the field with defenders backing away from him. He spotted the run of Milik and played a comfortable pass right into the path of the Polish #9 who slid it past the diving Lorient keeper.
Young Guendouzi then scored his second of the night in stoppage time with a little help from some sloppy defending to secure the victory over the boys from Brittany.
The three points puts OM in third place, a point behind second place Lens but with a game in hand. They’ll head to Rome to take on Lazio in Europa League action on Thursday and will then return to league action on Sunday when they host the French leaders, PSG.
Clermont 1 – 0 Lille
Tim Weah put in a 71 minute shift but was unable to make a difference as the Dogues returned to losing ways with a close defeat at the hand of Clermont Foot on Saturday evening. The only goal came from Vital N’Simba just after the half hour mark. They could have gone up earlier but Johan Gastien’s rocket shot that was heading inside the far post was knocked away by some acrobatic goal keeping from Ivo Grbić.
The only goal of the game came when Lille failed to clear their area, instead letting the Congolese defender run onto a loose ball just at the top of the D. He hit it first time and put it where Grbić couldn’t get fingers to it. 1-0 to the home team.
The second half was pretty lifeless for Lille, with just Jose Fonte getting a shot off that didn’t give the Clermont keeper much trouble as he preserved his clean sheet.
Lille has not been playing like French champions, picking up only 14 of a possible 30 points as they find themselves in the bottom half of the league standings. They’ll try to right the ship over the weekend when they host Brest on Sunday night but first they’ll have to deal with Sevilla in Champions League action on Wednesday night.
Notes:
Nicholas Gioacchini came off the bench in the 83rd minute but Montpellier had already hit the game winner in the 43rd minute as they came away with the 1-0 victory. The win will give them confidence as they head down the Mediterranean coast on Sunday afternoon.
