French Ligue 1: Lyon Defeat Marseille 3-2 After Wild Second Half

Lyon are firmly into a UEFA Champions League qualifying spot and challenging for an automatic place, thanks to their dramatic 3-2 home win at the Stade de Gerland over second placed Marseille. The visitors were in control for long stretches of the match and even came back from 2-0 down to level the score at 2-2, but a great strike by captain Cris sealed the victory for Les Gones late into the second half.

Lisandro Lopez opened the scoring in the 25th minute, converting a penalty that he drew from Souleymane Diawara. Marseille pressed forward for the rest of the second half, but couldn’t find an equalizer. The beginning of the first half saw Lyon get back into the game in a fairly even back and forth battle, and they went ahead 2-0 in the 69th, thanks to a magnificent individual effort by Cesar Delgado. The winger beat Marseille right back Rod Fanni with a couple of cutback dribbles, setting himself up for an open shot at the net, which he placed well.

After Marseille failed to capitalize on a long spell of dominance at the end of the first half, the second half has started with Lyon as the team in control, and they’ve found the back of the net in the 69th minute to go up 2-0 on their opponents. If this score holds, Lyon will put a serious dent in Marseille’s title hopes, as L’OM will trail Lille by four points with four games to go if this game ends in a loss for them.

Cesar Delgado was the man who scored, and he did it on an absolutely stellar individual effort. Picking up the ball in the box, Delgado abused Marseille right back Rod Fanni, beating him twice with cut-back dribbles, then putting the ball past Steve Mandanda.

After 45 minutes of play at the Stade de Gerland, Lyon have a 1-0 lead on Marseille, and they’re well on their way to both playing themselves back into the UEFA Champions League and seriously crippling Marseille’s title chances. Lyon’s goal came from Lisandro Lopez, who drew a penalty from Souleymane Diawara in the 25th minute, then converted it with a powerful strike to notch his 16th goal of the season. Since that moment, Marseille have been the aggressors, but they’re yet to find a breakthrough.

Marseille had the best early opportunities, thanks to a flurry of set pieces between the 10th and 13th minutes. In the 11th, in the middle of their dominant sequence, Loic Remy appeared to score a goal, but it was disallowed for a foul by Diawara. At that point, Lyon started to look like the better team, and they capped off their dominant sequence with Lopez’s goal.

Lyon have a lead over Marseille after a period of around eight minutes of being the better side, thanks to a drawn and converted penalty kick by Argentinian forward Lisandro Lopez. Last year’s Ligue 1 player of the year got off to a bit of a rough start this year, but when he’s been on, he’s been as good as last year, and his penalty has taken him to a total of 16 league goals on the season.

Cutting in from the left hand side, Lopez caught Marseille defender Souleymane Diawara out of position, and in a desperate attempt to dispossess Lopez, Diawara stuck out his leg clumsily and brought down Lopez in the box. He stepped up to the spot confidently and blasted a laser into the back of the net, giving Lyon a 1-0 lead.

Despite their early hiccups, Lyon really should be 1-0 ahead after 16 minutes, but the score is still level thanks to a spectacular miss by Miralem Pjanic, who is starting in place of the unavailable (and to be fair, out of form anyway) Yoann Gourcuff. His team worked a fantastic ball into the box, with Lisandro Lopez putting in a low cross that was left for Pjanic by Bafetimbi Gomis, with a great dummy. Pjanic had the net at his mercy as he stood with the ball at his feet right on the penalty spot, but he inexplicably missed wide to Steve Mandanda’s right.

After a period where Marseille surged forward for five minutes, Lyon are tilting the pitch in their favor. They’ve been on the front foot since L’OM’s series of set pieces, and this is turning out to a great game with surges of attacking momentum for both teams.

Lyon and Marseille are still scoreless through 15 minutes of play at the Stade de Gerland, but the home side have had some seriously nervous moments in the early going. Loic Remy is causing some serious problems for Lyon’s defense early on, and Hugo Lloris does not look terribly confident in goal.

In a matter of a couple of minutes, Lyon gave away two free kicks within 25 yards of the goal. The first one, in the 11th minute, didn’t result in anything, but a Remy goal just after the free kick was disallowed for a foul off the ball just seconds before Remy took his shot. Just a minute after that incident, in the 12th minute, Remy was fouled from behind just outside of the penalty box, and the referee got a tough decision exactly right by giving a free kick just outside of the box. On the ensuing free kick, Lloris was caught out of position, but his defense prevented any shots from reaching his goal.

Lyon host Marseille in what looks to be the hosts’ last hope of breaking Marseille’s stranglehold on second place and entering the guaranteed Champions League spots. Although this is a big match, nobody’s really convinced it’ll be an exciting one - there’s a lot at stake for both teams and neither will want to lose here. But Lyon need to attack, so if they can grab an early(ish) goal we might see both sides play the sort of football we know they can.

That wasn’t a classic by any stretch of the imagination but ultimately Ligue Un leaders Lille will depart the Stade Marcel Picot happy at having earned all three points. An ultra-defensive AS Nancy side seemed to be playing for the point, and they were succeeding in keeping the visitors at bay until the very end of the first half, when Belgian starlet Eden Hazard whipped in a free kick that evaded Damien Gregorini and crashed into the side netting to give Lille the advantage.

Nancy, who had managed three shots in the first half, were forced to attack in the second, and came close to levelling several times, most notably when Jonathan Brison fired just with in the 77th minute. However, for all of their huffing and puffing in and around Lille’s penalty box, the hosts didn’t force Mickael Landreau into a single serious save, and Lille were left to see the game out relatively comfortably. Aside from all the fouls, that is - a rough estimate has the foul count as one every two-and-a-half minutes. Like I said, not a classic.

Lille are sitting around waiting to win the league, and Nacy really aren’t very good. But they are at home,and there’s always the chance of an upset - it’s just not a very good one. Except Nancy to sit back and play ultra-defensive football, and also expect the Lille strike force of Tilio de Melo, Gervinho, and Eden Hazard to break through at some point. They usually manage it.

Substitutes: Bakaye Traore, Djamel Bakar, Alexandre Cuvillier, Alfred Ndiaye, Joel Sami, Benjamin Jeannot, Remy Pillot.

Despite ample opportunity over the past few weeks, the teams at the top and bottom of the Ligue 1 table have largely refused to create any real separation. The title looks a two-horse race at the moment, but Lyon are still close enough that they’d scarcely consider themselves out of the running altogether. They’ll have a massive chance to close the gap this weekend as send-place Marseille come to pay a visit while Lille will look at the tough tasks ahead of their closest rivals and their clash with relegation threatened Nancy as an opportunity to create a bit of breathing room.

Saturday