Marseille does the right thing

Olympique de Marseille recovered after their slap against Annecy and resumed their lead for second place in Ligue 1 by winning at Rennes (1-0), taking advantage of Monaco's brake on Troyes (2- 2), Sunday for the 26th day of Ligue 1. This victory does not erase the nightmare of elimination in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France against a Ligue 2 team (2-2, 7 pens to 6), but at least OM are four steps ahead of Monaco (3rd) and Lens (4th), held in check by Lille (1-1) in the North derby on Saturday.

Tired, the players of Igor Tudor relied on a goal from Sead Kolasinac on a clever free kick played very quickly.

They also relegate Rennes (5th) to nine points, and end well a difficult week, started with the heavy defeat at the Vélodrome against Paris SG (3-0).

Behind, Monaco is no longer advancing.

After taking 23 out of 27 points in the league, ASM (3rd) has just experienced three big disappointments: an elimination on penalties in the Europa League against Leverkusen, a beating in the derby against Nice (3-0) and an equalizer de Troyes in the last moments, despite Wissam Ben Yedder's double.

Lyon is still far from getting involved in the fight for Europe.

OL (10th) experienced further disappointment when they were held to a draw at home by Lorient (0-0) and found themselves seven points behind Stade Rennais.

On Saturday, PSG beat Nantes (4-2) with Kylian Mbappé's 201st Parisian goal, a new club record, to prepare for their big meeting at Bayern Munich in the knockout stages of the Champions League, where they must go back. the defeat of the first leg (1-0).

Bayern winner before PSG

Four days before receiving Paris SG in the knockout stages of the Champions League, Bayern Munich won on the lawn of poorly ranked Stuttgart (2-1), Saturday evening, responding to Dortmund, winner the day before against Leipzig (2-1).

The distance duel between the two behemoths of the German championship continues, since eleven days before the end of the season, Bayern and Borussia Dortmund have 49 points each, the Munich residents retaining first place on goal difference (+44 versus +19).

Behind them, a small hole was created, since Union Berlin could not do better than a draw at home against Cologne (0-0), as well as Freiburg, held in check by Borussia Mönchengladbach (0- 0).

Surprise of the season, the Union is now five points behind the leading duo (44), while Freiburg shares 4th place with Leipzig at seven units (42 pts, ahead on goal difference).

At the end of the day, Randal Kolo Muani's Eintracht Frankfurt could not do better than a draw (2-2) on the lawn of Wolsfburg and missed an opportunity to get closer to the podium.

Frankfurt remain in sixth place in the championship with 39 points.

In adversity, Barça increases its lead

Affected by absences and reduced to ten from the hour mark, FC Barcelona struggled to overcome Valencia CF 1-0 on Sunday at Camp Nou during the 24th day of La Liga, and took a nine-point lead over the real Madrid

The Catalans opened the scoring in the 15th minute with a header from Raphinha after a superb opener from Sergio Busquets, but mismanaged their second half: Ferran Torres missed a penalty in the 55th, and Ronald Araujo was sent off after a card direct red in the 59th for a fault in the position of last defender.

Real, who were still in the race after the defeat of Barça in Almeria last week (1-0), saw the title escape a little more this Sunday.

Ancelotti's men, marked by the clasico lost on Thursday, lost in a rhythmic and hung match at the Benito-Villamarin stadium.

In the 12th minute, Karim Benzema's direct free kick started hostilities, but was canceled a few minutes by the referee, with the help of the video, for a hand by Antonio Rüdiger in the wall.

The people of Madrid were able to count on a great Thibaut Courtois, who notably made two good saves in front of Borja Iglesias to keep his people afloat.

And Dani Ceballos had the ball from 1-0 at the end of the foot in the 75th, but his recovery did not catch the frame.

Inter Milan, only second

AC Milan's setback on Saturday against Fiorentina (2-1) was taken advantage of by its rivals on Sunday: Inter Milan alone took second place in Serie A by beating Lecce (2-0) and the AS Roma chased the Rossoneri out of the Top-4 by beating Juventus (1-0).

Roma pulled off a nice coup in the poster for the 25th day thanks to a light strike from defender Gianluca Mancini (53rd), who unlocked a closed match.

She takes fourth place by beating Milan (5th) on goal difference.

On the Inter side, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, with a jewel in the middle of the skylight (29th), and Lautaro Martinez, with a recovery close to the post (53rd), allow the Nerazzurri to once again become the unique dolphins of Naples, still comfortably installed in the lead with fifteen points ahead despite losing Friday against Lazio Rome (1-0).

Liverpool inflict a beating on Manchester United

Liverpool, with braces from Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah, scored their biggest victory against Manchester United (7-0).

The previous record for a Reds victory over their biggest rival in English football was a 5-0 win dating back to 1925. The Red Devils had not suffered such humiliation since Boxing Day 1931 and the 7-0 win over Wolverhampton.

With this triumph, Liverpool take 5th place in Newcastle with 42 points against 41, even if the Magpies have one game less.

They also come back three lengths from Tottenham, 4th and last virtual qualifier for the C1, but who played one more match.

With 49 points and the same number of matches as Liverpool, United remain firmly in 3rd place, but they see the leading tandem, made up of Arsenal (63 pts) and Manchester City (58th) who have continued their lead race

Led 2-0, Arsenal fought back to beat Bournemouth 3-2 and regain their five-point lead over Manchester City, winner of Newcastle (2-0).

With AFP

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