Marseille fans themselves would probably struggle to remember the last time they had a weaker team than this season’s side in this century. Almost everyone from the first team was sold due to an enormous financial crisis. Coach Bruno Genesio has been handed a strange contraption of a team. Its structure is unstable; it creaks, screws keep falling out, and so much is missing, but one of the most questionable teams in the history of the former European champions is slowly getting back on its feet. For starters, they have at least begun stringing together wins in the domestic league, recording their second in a row, this time against Angers (5–2).
The club from western France has long been a regular customer for the Velodrome giants. Over the previous ten years, the two clubs had met 20 times, with Angers winning just once. Even this Marseille side, full of holes and flaws, beat them comfortably. Marseille produced one of their best performances since the start of the season, putting five past the hosts and having the chances to score even more. And yet, the match had started better for the home side.
Angers took the lead in the most bizarre fashion. Geoffrey Kondogbia, attempting to clear the danger, hit Lilian Raolisoa on the head, and the ball rolled into the net. However, as time went on, Marseille began putting their opponents under increasing pressure and managed to turn the game around before half-time through Himad Abdelli (signed from Angers themselves last season, he had mostly been a substitute) and Noham Kamissoko (one of those players from the B team).
The fact that two players like these were responsible for turning the game around says enough about Marseille’s quality. Still, the key players took over in the second half, and Angers had no chance of survival. Amine Gouiri and Igor Paixao showed why they have the highest market values in this Olympique squad. Gouiri kept his composure to turn the rebound into the net after missing a penalty, while the Brazilian put the finishing touch on the performance five minutes before the 90 minutes were up. The strange team known as Marseille is still creaking, but at least it has continued to climb the table.LIGUE 1 – MATCHDAY 7FridayLe Mans – Toulouse 0-3 (0-0)/Rowe 46, Donnum 59, Tengstedt 87/SaturdayStrasbourg – PSG 1-3 (1-0)/Reyna 17 – Zabarnyi 77, Dembele 85, Doue 90+3/Lille – Brest 1-1 (0-1)/Giroud 64 pent – Balde 6/Troyes – Lens 1-3 (1-2)/Nkada 26 – Monfray 13 og, Edouard 45+2, Aguilar 55/SundayAngers – Olympique Marseille 2-5 (1-2)/Raolisoa 14, El Ouazzani 75 pen – Abdelli 37, Kamissoko 43, Gouiri 60, Harit 83, Paixao 85/Le Havre – Auxerre 1-3 (0-1)/Fofana 66 – Namaso 40, 61, Faivre 80/Lorient – Monaco 1-0 (0-0)/Cadiou 61 pen/Paris – Rennes 4-3 (2-1)/Lopez 14, 45+4, Sinayoko 76, 90+7 pen – Lepaul 29 pen, 74 pen, 88 pen/Olympique Lyon – Nice 2-1 (2-1)/Sulc 32, Tessman 36 – Wahi 18/