Marseille continues in Reims thanks to Gerson
With a saving goal from the Brazilian Gerson, Marseille consolidated their second place by going to win in pain in Reims (1-0), Sunday at the end of the 34th day of L1.
Four days after their stunning success against Nantes (3-2), OM did not shine but provided the essentials thanks to Gerson, who came into play on the return from the locker room and authored a nice but at the end of the match (83rd).
Certainly, the starting lineup had been redesigned since Duje Caleta-Car, Dimitri Payet and Gerson had been spared. The game menu entries from Reunion and the Brazilian brought more creativity to the Marseille game and this tactical choice ended up paying off.
With 65 points, Marseille retains a six-point lead over Stade Rennes and Monaco, enough to calmly deal with the last four league games which promise to be complicated against Lyon, Lorient, Rennes and Strasbourg.
OM will thus be able to calmly approach their semi-final first leg of the Europa League Conference on the lawn of Feyenoord Rotterdam on Thursday.
Reims, which had ensured its maintenance on Wednesday by overcoming Lille (2-1), remains 13th with 40 units on the clock.
Under the eyes of Frank McCourt, the American owner of OM, the first period was rather boring between an inoffensive Marseillais and a grouped but sharp Rémois in transition.
The best opportunity was in favor of OM with a distant but powerful strike from Arkadiusz Milik that Predrag Rajkovic repelled in an unprofessional manner (8th).
Steve Mandanda, tenured for the sixth time this season in the league only, was not used much in the first period, except on a shot from Azor Matusiwa (18th), but the bad recovery he made then that it was advanced to almost cost OM dearly. Fortunately for him, Van Bergen’s lob attempt was pushed back on his line by Luan Peres (37th).
– Gerson releases OM –
The experienced goalkeeper, who wore the captain’s armband, made up for it after the break by fending off a point-blank header from Marshall Munetsi (76′), one of only two Champagne chances with a shot off target from Ghislain Konan ( 74th).
The entries of Gerson and Payet woke up the Phocaeans a little, who however waited for the last quarter of an hour to be threatening.
The Brazilian first deflected right next to a cross from Bamba Dieng (80th), before colliding with Rajkovic, author of a nice parade with his foot (82nd).
The third chance will have been the right one: after a corner pushed back by the Reims defense, Valentin Rongier again alerted Payet on the left side, who found Gerson in the area. The Brazilian eliminated Andreaw Gravillon with a nice feint before offering victory to OM with an unstoppable cross shot, to the delight of the thousands of Marseille supporters present at the Auguste-Delaune stadium (0-1, 83rd ).
The Marseillais then quietly managed the last minutes to win their 19th success of the season and thus definitively forget the defeat (2-1) in Paris during the Classic, last weekend.
With 10 wins in their last 11 matches in all competitions, OM are ending the season in a cannonball and will be difficult to dislodge from second place in L1, synonymous with direct qualification for the Champions League.