Lyon returns to victory and moves Marseille away from the top of the ranking

OL had some revenge to take on Marseille. The Lyonnais, led by their captain Alexandre Lacazette, achieved this on Sunday February 4 with a 1-0 victory, which gave them a little air in the standings while keeping their opponent away from European places.

The memories of the fall were still fresh, those of the first leg, or rather the first leg, the one that was not played after the stone-breaking of the Lyon bus and the serious injury of the then coach, Fabio Grosso, then the one that OM had dominated head and shoulders for a scathing 3-0.

With Sunday’s victory, OL wiped part of the slate clean. Pierre Sage’s players are certainly only fifteenth but their pursuers are starting to look at them from a little distance and the 3-0 at the Vélodrome was undoubtedly a low point. As a bonus, OL have, as is often the case, poisoned the life of their Olympic rival, who is definitely not doing very well.

OM’s European dreams are indeed fading away, with Gennaro Gattuso’s men finding themselves eighth due to a series of four straight games without a win in Ligue 1, three draws and Sunday’s defeat.

Dozens of balls for Nemanja Matic

The Top 4 qualifying for the Champions League is only six points away, however, because up front, things are not progressing very quickly either. But Marseille seems too far from the mark, collectively and individually, to hope to quickly fill this gap.

Because in the end, Marseille’s best opportunity came in… the third second of the match, when on the kick-off, Amine Harit struck directly and found the crossbar of Anthony Lopes, beaten.

The failed CAN of Senegal and Morocco and the portfolio of John Textor made it possible to offer this clash of cripples some good football players and Harit, back from Africa like Azzedine Ounahi or Iliman Ndiaye, is one of them.

Nemanja Matic too and he immediately touched dozens of balls and showed he knew what to do with them. But all this was not enough to forget that Lyon remained in the league with two defeats and OM with three draws and the whole first period was quite poor.

For a long time, there were almost never any balls in either penalty area, until an excellent cross from Ernest Nuamah, taken in two steps by Alexandre Lacazette for the opener (1-0, 37ᵉ).

Five minutes later, the Lyon captain did not go far from the double on a similar action and OL’s advantage at the break was not stolen, the locals having not been infinitely better but at least more constant in intensity and search for forward play.

Absences that weigh on Marseille

The start of the second period was again to the advantage of the Lyonnais, with two good chances for Gift Orban (51st) then Nuamah (54th).

At OM, the absences of Jordan Veretout and Geoffrey Kondogbia weighed, of course, but the total inability of Gattuso’s players to create danger for more than an hour is still worrying.

While Lyon fell back, the Marseillais were not very pressing, with simply a strike above Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (76th) and a few more crosses after the entry of Jonathan Clauss.

The Marseille evening could have changed all the same, on a new cross, hit by the Lyonnais Ainsley Naitland-Miles on a catastrophic clearance after a dive ball from Aubameyang (79th).

But Marseille did not score and must now prepare to suffer the wrath of the Vélodrome on Friday against Metz. Lyon, for its part, comes out of this Sunday with a lighter heart and turned towards the Coupe de France and the reception of Lille on Wednesday.