Marseilles (AFP)

Two set pieces, three points and the 5th place which is approaching: Marseille did not shine on Sunday at the Vélodrome at the end of the 31st day of L1 but did not need to do more to beat Dijon (2- 0).

The operation is interesting in the standings for Jorge Sampaoli's team.

The site is still in progress, progress is not necessarily obvious, but the points fall.

Since the arrival of the Argentine technician, OM (6th) has won three out of four matches and Sunday's success partly erases the spectacular failure of the previous day in Nice (3-0 defeat).

By beating the extraordinarily harmless Dijonnais, the Marseillais especially returned to a point of 5th place and Lens which, Saturday, had drawn 1-1 against Lyon.

OM's European objective therefore still stands and gives meaning to the end of the season for the Provencal club, even if Sampaoli is necessarily working while already thinking about the next exercise.

After two weeks of an international truce that did not concern a lot of Marseillais, we were just waiting to see how the former Argentina coach had taken advantage of this workspace to install his ideas.

As such, it must be said that the first period was disappointing.

OM dominated, of course, against the very great collective and technical weakness of Dijon, arrived at the Vélodrome after 10 defeats in a row.

But, instead of taking advantage of it, OM gradually got up to speed, with a construction so slow and approximate that the best balls to play were finally those, many, lost by the Burgundians.

- Decisive payet -

While Sampaoli had installed Luis Henrique on the left side to compensate for the absence of injuries from Amavi and Nagatomo, the danger only came from the other wing and the good connection between Thauvin and Lirola, one of the protagonists of the celebration in Catalonia which embarrassed OM this week.

The punishment was only financial and not sporting and OM will not regret it because it is then Balerdi, the other swinger, who finally found the opening of a beautiful powerful header on a corner from Payet fair before the break (1-0, 45th).

Previously, despite a considerable percentage of possession, Marseille had only very rarely been dangerous: a good strike from the left of Payet (13th), another too ambitious from Milik (30th) and, as the only shot on target, an off-center free kick de Thauvin boxed by Allagbé, promoted goalkeeper N.1 instead of Racioppi.

After the break, the game was entirely Marseille, Dijon hardly ever putting a foot in the last 20 meters of the opposing camp.

OM could then have killed the match quickly but, twice, Payet should have done better.

First from the left, on a good serve from Lirola (54th), then from the right, on a nice pass from Milik, otherwise discreet (60th).

Clumsy in the face of goal, the Marseille N.10 still unblocked things with a new set piece, an eccentric free kick this time.

The goal then belongs equally to Alvaro, who grazed the ball with his head, and Ecuele-Manga who definitively sent it with the thigh in his own goal (2-0, 79th).

Mission accomplished, therefore, for Marseille, even if a lot of work remains.

On the Dijon side, the situation is a little more desperate every day.

"This season, we do not deserve much," Burgundian President Olivier Delcourt told AFP on Saturday.

In fact, his club is almost in Ligue 2.

© 2021 AFP