It wasn’t a good day for Mark McKenzie when Toulouse hosted OSC Lille over the weekend. It was also s bad night for AS Monaco despite Folarin Balogun scoring yet again.
Marseille 3 – 1 Metz
Tim Weah went the distance on the right side of Marseille’s midfield as Les Minots hit the back of the net thrice to send the boys from Metz home with no points to show for their trip. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored in the first half, followed by second half strikes from Igor Paixao and Hamed Junior Traore. Georgiy Tsitaishvili got one back for the visitors shortly after the intermission.
It only took 13 minutes for the hosts to light up the score board when they countered with Mason Greenwood on the left side, just back from suspension. He picked out Aubameyang racing down the middle of the field and watched the former Arsenal man strike for the ninth time this season. Twenty minutes later the Gabonese striker was celebrating again, that was until the offside flag came up. VAR showed that he was off by a fingernail. Metz then registered their first shot of the game in the 44th minute but the far post made the save.
Marseille’s second goal, just after the intermission, was similar to the first. On the break, it was Greenwood again who played the ball forward to his Brazilian colleague and watched Paixao chip it over the on-rushing keeper. Minutes later however, Metz, who score less than a goal a game, scored a goal when Tsitaishvili took matters into his own hands, or feet, beat a couple defenders and slid the ball past the diving keeper, Geronimo Rulle. Traore’s goal was a tap-in that came in stoppage time.
Marseille sit in fourth place and will head to Lorient over the weekend.
Paris FC 4 – 1 Monaco
The Monaco defense was abysmal the first 21 minutes of the game where they gave up three quick goals to the league’s newcomers, Paris Football Club in the capital. Folarin Balogun was in the game and scored another for the team from the Principality but one was definitely not enough to gather any points.
Jonathan Ikone scored the first of the game after just four minutes when he stepped in front of his marker and slotted the cross from the left flank into the back of the net from five yards out. Three minutes later Ciro Immobile, who joined the Parisians in January, scored his second for his new team from just inside the 18-yard box. It was Ikone again in the 21st minute, assisted by the Italian when the entire team broke down field and Immobile slotted the ball across to the unmarked Frenchman.
Thirty-six minutes into the game, Balogun was played through the middle where he out-paced a pair of defenders and slotted his shot home. That was his ninth goal in nine games in Ligue 1. But a 71st minute goal from Connecticut-born Luca Koleosho, who is on loan from Burnley, ended any hopes of a revival. Koleosho is currently a part of the Italian U-21 team.
The loss knocks Monaco out of the European spots but with five games left to the season, all is not lost. Next up they’ll host relegation threatened Auxerre.
Notes
Toulouse and Mark McKenzie hosted the red-hot Dogues of Lille and got a spanking, losing to the boys from the north by a 4-0 scoreline. Although the American defender had a chance at hitting the back of the net, his early header bounced off the post. Unfortunately, McKenzie had an early night when he left the field of play three minutes after the intermission when he saw a straight red card.
Toulouse will try to get some points next time out when they head north again, this time to take on RC Lens, who are fighting hard to become the French champions. The man from the Bronx however, will be sitting that one out.
Tanner Tessmann got to play the last eight minutes of Lyon’s 2-0 home win over Lorient. The goals came from Ukrainian striker Roman Yaremchuk and French midfielder, Corentin Tolisso. The three points leaves them in fifth place, just two points out of a coveted top three place that will guarantee Champions League next season.
The Olympians will have their hands full when they head to the French capital to take on PSG, who are still holding onto the top spot.