A victory against OL is a real rarity in Marseille's career in recent years.

Of the 15 previous clashes in L1 between the two teams, Marseille had won only one and this is one of the reasons for the immense explosion of joy at the Vélodrome after the final whistle.

But this success is all the more precious as OM remained on a terrible series in L1 - only one point taken in four matches - which threatened to drag it dangerously towards the second third of the table.

On the contrary, the three points taken on Sunday bring the Provençals very close to the podium, 4th one point behind Rennes (3rd) and tied with Monaco (5th), whom they will face on Sunday before the championships give way to the World Cup.

After two victories, the Lyonnais for their part relapsed and remain stuck in 8th place, from where Laurent Blanc will have to extricate them.

too many inaccuracies

After Tuesday's terrible disappointment against Tottenham, Marseille coach and leaders had repeated that the direction taken was the right one, that the matches were good, like the intentions and even the statistics, everything that does not bring in points.

But the results were really bad before this shock and the atmosphere was therefore tense at the Vélodrome.

"All guilty, mandatory victory", had warned the North Turn before, like the whole stadium, to support his team without reservation.

Houssem Aouar, from Lyon, against Jonathan Clauss, from Marseille, during the L1 match between the two teams on November 6, 2022 in Marseille Christophe SIMON AFP

While White had opted for an unprecedented 4-4-2, Tudor remained perfectly faithful to his ideas.

He said on Friday he was "thinking" about sacrificing a little of his balance to add more attacking danger, but he finally maintained his immovable midfielder Veretout-Rongier, contenting himself with starting Under and leaving Guendouzi on the bench, a real surprise, for once.

Throughout the first period, his players in any case showed that they had not let go of the Croatian, biting into the match with the usual desire and intensity.

OM even had some good ideas, spoiled by too many technical inaccuracies and a few too many touches, signed Harit or Tavares.

As often, the most dangerous was then Sanchez, deprived of the opener by a risky tackle from Tagliafico (13th) and who missed a few centimeters on a recovery after a corner from Under (21st).

Opposite, the threat was embodied by the Lacazette-Dembélé duo and by the technical skill of Aouar, but it remained very theoretical, OL only approaching Pau Lopez's goal just before the break, on a Caqueret free kick well slammed by the Spaniard.

Jordan Véretout, from Marseille, facing Jérôme Boateng (g) and Thiago Mendes, from Lyon, during the L1 match between the two teams on November 6, 2022 in Marseille Christophe SIMON AFP

like in mma

But at that moment, OM were already in front, rewarded for their good first period by a goal signed by Gigot with a header from a corner well struck by Veretout (43rd).

The OM central defender, a native of Avignon and supporter of the club since childhood, went to celebrate hanging from the fences of the South bend, like an MMA fighter.

After a shock with Veretout, Gigot was then bandaged in the head and had to leave, thus missing the good quarter of an hour of fight in which the two teams engaged.

None really emerged victorious, even if Lyon had an opportunity, via Toko Ekambi (63rd), while OM sometimes seemed to hesitate as to the way forward.

Amine Harit (d), from Marseille, and Thiago Mendes, from Lyon, during the match between the two teams in L1 on November 6, 2022 in Marseille Christophe SIMON AFP

At the very end of the match, Sanchez on a candy from Payet (87th) then Guendouzi (88th) should still have scored and allowed the public to breathe.

For relief, we had to wait a bit.

But the victory came and Marseille made up for some of the points stupidly lost en route against Ajaccio or Strasbourg.

© 2022 AFP