Nimes (AFP)

Champions League, Ligue 1: OM continues.

Three days after beating Olympiakos on the European stage, the Marseillais managed a superb operation by going to Nîmes for a fifth consecutive victory in the league (2-0), Friday during the 13th day.

With this success, André Villas-Boas' team temporarily moved to second place in the standings, only one length behind Paris SG, leader.

The Marseillais also hope to take advantage of the direct clashes between teams at the top of the table - Lille-Monaco and Montpellier-PSG - and know that they can count on their two late matches to further improve their record.

Another good news for OM and Villas-Boas, the first goal of the match was scored by Dario Benedetto, already a scorer last week against Nantes and who is perhaps on the road to a complete recovery after weeks of great difficulty.

The air from the Stade des Costières is in any case good for the Argentinian who, just before the end of the competitions in the face of the advance of the Covid epidemic, had scored a hat-trick in a success 3- 2 end of February.

Then, "Pipa" had not scored for 15 consecutive matches, before regaining success against Nantes at the Vélodrome.

But it was on penalty when he scored Friday in the game, a beautiful center-forward goal.

On a superb opening of Alvaro, the former Boca Juniors succeeded everything, his control oriented of the chest and his ball stung, to beat Reynet and put an end to the resistance of the Nîmes (57th).

- Payet in progress -

While Nîmes played 10 after the expulsion of Cubas, Germain then easily scored on a cross from Sanson (2-0, 84th) for a new attacking goal, which can only do good for confidence.

Before the match, Villas-Boas had mentioned the fatigue of his players and spoke of a possible "rotation".

But he also knew that this passage to Costières was a good opportunity to take points before a series of theoretically more serious matches, against Manchester City on Wednesday in C1, then Monaco and Rennes.

He finally favored efficiency and continuity by changing very little his starting 11, with the only Thauvin spared on the bench before entering with 20 minutes from the end.

The end of the match also allowed him to give Strootman, Gueye and the mysterious Luis Henrique some playing time.

The Portuguese technician was also able to see that his team, which often confiscated the ball from the Gardois, was still solid but also more spirited offensively, in the wake of Payet, clearly on the right track.

More available and more mobile than in recent weeks, the Reunionese wandered from left to right of the very moving system set up by AVB, in which the attacking circles have changed a lot.

This trip to the Gard is therefore a success for the Marseillais, only a little tarnished by an avalanche of warnings received especially during a tense end of the first period.

It even earned Villas-Boas a red card, forced to come and sit on a handrail behind the sidelines at a time when everyone was tangled up, even in the stands with a few courtesies exchanged between Marseille substitutes and unavailable in Nîmes.

© 2020 AFP