With this victory and this score, Marseille climb to 50 points and a goal difference of +17, exactly like Nice, but pass in front for the title of the best attack, setting the scene for a tantalizing duel of the dolphins next week at the stadium. Velodrome.

The men of Jorge Sampaoli, who celebrated his 62nd birthday on Sunday, first meet Thursday in Basel for their round of 16 second leg of the Europa League Conference, where they will have to confirm the slight advantage of the first leg (2-1) .

In the league, they no longer had too much room for error.

Remaining on three matches without a win (2 losses and 1 draw), they had seen Rennes and Strasbourg pass them in the afternoon.

But in front of the nearly 15,000 spectators of a packed Francis Le Blé stadium for this gala match, Gerson, Arkadiusz Milik, Amine Harit and Cengiz Ünder put theirs back in the direction of travel, despite the absence of Dimitri Payet.

For Brest, it's a new setback, after the victory snatched a week earlier at Lens (1-0).

The Ty-Zefs stagnate in 13th place (35 points), but still ahead of the red zone, before a perilous trip on Sunday to Angevins who will be keen not to suffer an 8th defeat in a row.

From the first minutes of the match, the Marseillais turned the head of an experimental Brest defense, in the absence of captain Brendan Chardonnet (suspended), Christophe Hérelle (sick) and Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel (injured).

Milik, author of a double against Basel and established at the forefront in tandem with Harit, narrowly missed cutting a cross from Matteo Guendouzi (2nd).

Marseille attack on fire

But the next minute, the Pole, launched in depth by Harit, fixed the defense and ideally served Gerson, who deceived Marco Bizot with a shot from the right (0-1, 3rd).

Arkadiusz Milik (C) and OM too strong for Brest, beaten at home (4-1), March 13, 2022 Loic VENANCE AFP

The Dutch goalkeeper, already often decisive this season, including the previous week in Lens, kept the Brestois in the race with several parades against Milik (13th) or Pape Gueye (32nd).

Gradually, Michel Der Zakarian's men, who beat Marseille 2-1 in the first leg in December at the Vélodrome, raised their heads, but no matter how hard they pushed, they failed to defeat the defense Marseille.

Opposite, the Marseille attackers were on fire despite the deluge of rain that fell on the stadium during the second half.

Shortly after the hour mark, Milik added to the scoring with a nice uncrossed header on a corner from Harit (0-2, 63').

And the same Harit drove the point home shortly after by being on the receiving end of the ball when Bizot repelled a powerful strike from Gerson (0-3, 71st).

But the Brestois did not let go and on a corner, Irvin Cardona rose higher than all to reduce the mark with a superb header (1-3, 90th + 1).

Gerson (center) opens the scoring for Marseille against Brest at the Léon-Blé stadium, March 13, 2022 Loic VENANCE AFP

Except that the Marseillais were keen on goal difference: on a long clearance from Paul Lopez, Bizot missed his exit against Cengiz Ünder, leaving the Turkish striker who came into play 10 minutes earlier to score the precious 4th goal (1-4 , 90th+2).

© 2022 AFP