Marseilles (AFP)

And six!

Marseille left the European scene with yet another defeat on Wednesday but proved on Saturday that he was at home in Ligue 1 by beating Monaco 2-1 for a sixth success in a row which legitimizes its ambitions in the league.

Even the supporters of OM spread the message with this banner unfurled in the vacuum of the Velodrome: "Now that the European ordeal is over, make way for Ligue 1. Push them in".

Things are now clear: for OM, that's all for L1 and it works well.

This sixth victory in a row earned him a temporary second place in the standings, one length behind Paris SG.

André Villas-Boas's team, which has two games late as a bonus, has systematically won this season after its matches in the Champions League and has managed not to let its European difficulties interfere with its career in the league.

The Portuguese technician, suspended on Saturday, regularly insisted on the importance of direct confrontations against his rivals for European places.

This success against Monaco, even if it was acquired at the cost of a painful end to the match and spent defending, will delight him.

Before struggling at the end of the match, OM had played with their newfound confidence in recent weeks and showed new progress in the attacking game, despite the absence of Payet, also suspended.

In Ligue 1, OM makes others pay for their European frustrations and inflicts on them what they suffered on the floor above.

In the league, the famous "mistakes that pay for themselves", it is the others who commit them and, on Saturday at least, the ruthless attackers wear the white jersey.

- Thauvin sanctioned -

From the first minute, Monaco had a gigantic opportunity, wasted by Ben Yedder who sent an easy ball into the turn while he was alone at close range facing the empty goal.

OM, for their part, was surgical, taking advantage of two opposing ball losses to build two nice actions and take off even before the quarter of an hour of play.

In the 5th minute, it was first Thauvin who scored with a header on an excellent cross from Benedetto after a Nagatomo-Kamara movement.

Seven minutes later, the French world champion reimbursed the Argentinian with a new perfect cross, sent off from under Mannone by "Pipa", scorer found for three weeks.

In addition to the good Thauvin-Benedetto understanding, the common point of these two goals was the complacency of the Monegasque defense which, each time, gave OM simple balls before terribly lacking in aggression.

Marseille then controlled the match very quietly, but Monaco all the same got its head out of the water in the last quarter of an hour of the first period, with in particular a free kick very sharply struck by Badiashile and brilliantly released by Mandanda (33rd ).

After the break, the Monegasques pushed and made OM suffer where Sanson, injured, had been replaced by Gueye.

The Provençaux were in difficulty on the sides, the traditional weak point in the diamond-shaped middle, and Villas-Boas reorganized them into 4-2-3-1.

At the hour mark, on a new gift from the Monegasque rearguard, Thauvin could have killed the match but he struck above.

He then restarted the game by committing a fault in his area on Ben Yedder, who transformed the penalty (2-1, 79th).

Tired, the Marseillais ended up in agony.

But they held on and they remember that, last season, it was there, at the end of autumn and at the beginning of winter, that OM had chained the positive results and won their rivals to seek a ticket to the Champions League.

© 2020 AFP