Thanks to its great success over Le Havre (5-1), Olympique de Marseille is now three points ahead of Monaco for second place in the standings.
Olympique de Marseille, which remained in two very convincing matches at home against Monaco (2-1) and Lille (1-1), shone again this Sunday at the Vélodrome, crushing Le Havre (5-1), before -last in Ligue 1, on the 16th day. The Phocéens made the difference in the first half by scoring three times through Rongier (25th), Nadir (39th) and Maupay (43rd). Before driving the point home with Wahi (66th) and Garcia (75th). The HAC saved the honor by the former Marseillais, André Ayew (85th). This time, OM did not tremble against a supposed “small”, after having conceded defeat against Auxerre and draws against Reims and Angers.
OM – who have a fifth match without defeat (four wins and a draw) – did not miss the opportunity to widen the gap on Monaco for second place (33 points against 30). De Zerbi's players are 7 points behind PSG. Behind on the only goal difference (30 points) before this weekend, ASM had already played its match on this 16th day and lost at home against Paris SG (4-2) before the Christmas holidays . The HAC, for its part, has a fifth defeat in a row.
Before a series of probably more complicated matches — against Rennes, Strasbourg and Nice in L1 and against Lille in the Coupe de France –, the Marseillais also confirmed that they now had real certainties in the game, validated by the results with a current series of five victories and a draw between championship and Cup.
Sunday, they left the first strike of the match to Le Havre, with Ilyes Housni, who did not hit target (7th). But then there was nothing more for the Normans. As expected, OM confiscated the ball and worked to circulate it in front of the double wall installed by Didier Digard in front of Arthur Desmas' goal. The Le Havre coach's plan was undoubtedly to see the building stand until the end but the whole thing was not very solid and after a series of more or less dangerous attempts — Amir Murillo in the 10th, Adrien Rabiot in the 14th and 16th, Valentin Rongier in 18th or Mason Greenwood in 23rd –, everything gave way.
The first to find the opening was Rongier, already a scorer at Lens, who deceived Desmas with a nice shot from the right at the entrance to the area (1-0, 25th). If the former Nantes player, renowned for only marking good years once a year, starts to aim correctly, all hopes are allowed for OM. On Sunday, he in any case unlocked the match and forced Le Havre to venture a little higher, while seeing more than one in the Marseille camp had been a real rarity during the first half hour.
André Ayew acclaimed
With these few extra spaces, Roberto De Zerbi's players were able to push their attacks a little further and scored two more times before the break. In the 39th minute, the young Bilal Nadir (21 years old) widened the gap with a nice cross shot from the left into the area (2-0, 39th). Then Neal Maupay, always a clever goal hunter, found the target with his head (43rd) and celebrated like a dart thrower. At 3-0 at the break, the matter was settled but Marseille continued to play their well-regulated football. Maupay was thus twice more close to the goal before giving way to Elye Wahi.
And as the Marseille evening was almost perfect, the former Montpellier also scored, on a gift pass from Greenwood, and thus gave himself a nice ovation from the Vélodrome, which surely did him good after a difficult half-season (4-0, 66th). Ten minutes later, Ulisses Garcia increased the score on his first ball (5-0, 75th) and the Vélodrome public was not even upset about the reduction in Le Havre's score, because it came from Andre Ayew, a child of the club (5-1, 85th). The Ghanaian was also given a standing ovation and Marseille had a great evening to start the year.
