Marseilles (AFP)

Ligue 1 suits them better: Olympique de Marseille signed against Nantes (3-1) a fourth victory in a row to forget their setbacks in C1 and get back on the podium, Saturday in the advanced match of the 12th day.

The art of perpetual rebound.

OM have won again after a defeat in the Champions League and are now three points behind the leader, Paris SG (which hosts Bordeaux in the evening), virtually catching up with its two late matches ...

Unable to score a single point or a goal in Europe, André Villas-Boas's team scored three in a perfectly controlled match where his three offensives scored.

Better, the leaders scored, and the striker, finally, Dario Benedetto (60 sp), silent since the start of the season.

Florian Thauvin (2) and Dimitri Payet (35), holder after starting on the bench the two matches against FC Porto (3-0 / 2-0), so desperately transparent in C1, had shown the way.

Above all, the Olympians have regained juice, play, efficient pressing and desire.

Nantes, on the other hand, lacked all that and remains in 14th place, pending Sunday's matches.

His best player, by far, was his goalkeeper Alban Lafont.

The "Canaries" had two victories at the Vélodrome, but this time they did not at all upset Marseille's plans.

They only reduced the score by Ludovic Blas, a shot deflected by Hiroki Sakai (73).

- As many opportunities as the entire C1 -

The game even started very badly for them.

OM needed confidence?

He found it in the opening scoring from the start.

A long pass from Valentin Rongier took the Nantes defense up to speed and threw Thauvin deep.

"Flotov" beat Alban Lafont with a "Zlatan-style" recovery, in extension.

The Nantes goalkeeper, however, interposed twice in quick succession on strikes from Michael Cuisance and then Dario Benedetto (7).

Lafont still blocked the way for the Argentinian, depriving him of his first goal of the season (10).

Boosted, OM had just created in ten minutes as many dangerous opportunities as in their entire Champions League campaign ...

Lafont still managed a small miracle in front of Dimitri Payet, on a counter (22).

The N.10 involuntarily hit the goal on the action, but the Nantais got up.

But the Hopes goalkeeper, also vigilant on a 35m strike from Boubacar Kamara (48), could not stop everything.

He could not do anything on the flat foot of Payet, on a fatal cross behind Cuisance.

Everything was better for OM, who took advantage of a crossbar, on a powerful header from Abdoulaye Touré then a save by Steve Mandanda on the recovery of Imran Louza (41).

- Benedetto scored -

Villas-Boas' deputy, Ricardo Carvalho, even added a pinch of trickery to this redemptive match: he put a second ball in play on the field, to stop a Nantes counter, while Sakai had just lost the ball in key and was out of position.

Warned, the Portuguese could have had worse for this anti-gambling gesture, just before the break.

Goals, spectacle and a touch of vice, OM completed the nice tribute to Diego Maradona before kick-off.

Instead of the traditional "Jump", the Velodrome broadcast the star herself singing "La mano de Dios", in the film about him by Emir Kusturica.

Argentina's missing "God" may also have inspired Benedetto, who finally scored his first goal.

He who had missed a penalty for his first match, last year against Nantes, had not shot since.

But faced with his appalling famine, Payet offered to kick that one, with also a little kiss outside of protocol.

Benedetto transformed it, and in turn paid homage to Maradona, stretching out his ten fingers, pointing at the back, in the opposite turn, the banner "Adios 10" with Diego's face.

After this fully successful outing, OM only has to export their L1 breath for their first match point for the Europa League, Tuesday against Olympiakos.

But it's getting better.

© 2020 AFP