Marseille beat Lens 3-1 on Saturday to remain inside touching distance of Ligue 1 table-toppers Paris Saint-Germain.
Second-half strikes from Valentin Rongier, Luis Henrique and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg ensured Marseille stay third, 9 factors behind PSG and three off Monaco in second spot.
After the highest two each gained on Friday, Marseille wanted to get again to successful methods with their journey to Lens following their hunch in type earlier than the worldwide break and something aside from a win would have meant they trailed PSG by not less than 11 factors.
Following a flying begin to life beneath new coach Roberto De Zerbi, Marseille have been hit-and-miss in latest weeks, shedding two of the their final 5 within the league.
These got here within the type of a chastening 3-0 loss at dwelling to arch-rivals PSG in October after which within the final matchday earlier than the break, a shock 3-1 dwelling defeat to mid-table Auxerre.
Lens appeared the extra threatening aspect within the first half with Marseille counting on goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli to maintain the match goalless going into half-time.
Nevertheless, it was the south-coast aspect that finally made the breakthrough 4 minutes into the second interval via Rongier.
Good centre-forward play by Neal Maupay arrange the possibility for the midfielder who provided a cool end one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
On 57 minutes, Luis Henrique doubled the guests’ lead with a rolled end from the right-hand aspect of the field after a swift counter-attack caught Lens on the break.
However the whole lot appeared to unravel for Marseille within the area of 5 minutes on the finish of the match.
Angelo Fulgini pulled one again for Lens within the eightieth minute, earlier than Remy Labeau Lascary thought he had grabbed a leveller on 85 minutes.
Nevertheless, the house supporters’ pleasure was minimize quick when the referee determined after a VAR assessment that there had been a foul within the build-up and the equaliser was disallowed.
Let off the hook, Marseille then sealed the three factors one minute from time when Hojbjerg drilled dwelling a fierce free-kick from the sting of the field.
In a while Saturday, lowly Saint-Etienne host bottom-of-the-table Montpellier earlier than Reims tackle Lyon.
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