Marseille recovered from their two slaps of the week to win 1-0 at Rennes and thus consolidate their second place, Sunday at the end of the 26th day of Ligue 1. Too naive on a quick free kick concluded by Sead Kolasinac (57th), the Rennais remain 5th, but see the podium move away frankly and their fight for European places become more complicated. Stunned by the 3-0 conceded at the Vélodrome a week ago against PSG in the league and especially by the elimination on penalties on Wednesday against Annecy (Ligue 2) in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France, the Marseillais can first to be satisfied with having been able to raise one’s head.
But they also carried out an excellent operation by taking advantage of the slowdown in Monaco and Lens to consolidate their second place with a four-point lead, while sending a potential other candidate for the podium back to his dear studies. Despite a slight rebound in the league in recent weeks, the Rennais who had the opportunity to come back to within two points of OM remain glued to 5th place, with a very small lead over Lille (6th). A rebound next week in Auxerre is mandatory before moving to Paris in two weeks.
Seventh away win
For the Marseillais, who have a seventh straight away victory in Ligue 1 and are reassured in defense, the rest promises to be more within their reach with the reception of Strasbourg and a trip to Reims. “No time to cry”, warned Igor Tudor: the Marseillais started very strong, with intense pressing, a strike from Jordan Veretout from the first minute, a missed strike from Cenginz Under while Steve Mandanda was beaten (9th) and an incursion by Jonathan Clauss well repelled by the Rennes goalkeeper (12th).
But the intensity was on both sides, and the Rennais also quickly got chances, with a festival from Djed Spence on the right (10th) and above all a superb strike from Amine Gouiri pushed back by the crossbar (15th).
General approach
From then on, the match turned into a general approach, with a constant back and forth between the two surfaces, not without a certain haste on both sides. In this little game, the Rennais proved to be the most dangerous, Arnaud Kalimuendo forcing Pau Lopez to a reflex stop (29th), while Karl Toko Ekambi, served at the entrance to the surface, missed his last gesture (31st) .
In this big battle, the Rouge et Noir quickly lost Jérémy Doku, betrayed by his knee and left in the 25th minute, and Matteo Guendouzi his composure, replaced by Ruslan Malinovskyi at the break. And if Mandanda had to dive into the feet of Alexis Sanchez (51st), the Marseillais found the fault with a little cunning: quickly playing a free kick while the defense was still settling in, Jordan Veretout found Under, who crossed for Sead Kolasinac popped up at the far post (0-1, 57th).
Very angry, the Rennais tried the same shot a dozen minutes later, but the Marseille defense was not so naive… And in the process, Toko Ekambi (76th) then Arthur Théate (77th) did not managed to frame their head, and despite intense pressing in the last minutes, in front of a full and boiling stadium, nothing more happened.