OL have RC Lens, LOSC surprised by Angers, OM is recovering well and offers Montpellier

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Garcia’s men had more difficulty approaching Leca’s goals even if Aouar sought the northerner goalkeeper (24th). Quite logically, Olympique Lyonnais opened the scoring before the break. Paqueta alerted Kadewere who with a judicious heel found Depay who won his duel against Leca (1-0, 39th). When they returned from the locker room, OL made the break. Well shifted to the right by Aouar, Dubois saw his center pushed back by Leca on Fortes who scored against his camp (2-0, 46th). The championship leader got a penalty four minutes later following contact between Leca and Cornet in the box (50th). Depay did not tremble and offered himself a brace (3-0, 52nd). In the hard, Racing reacted four minutes later thanks to a superb coiled shot from Sotoca which lodged in the top corner of Lopes (3-1, 56th). The meeting became lively again and Depay’s floating strike was repelled by Leca (60th). Lens finished the game better and Sotoca served Ganago well in the area but the northerner scorer was too short to try his luck (75th). Lyon was scared at the end of the match and Doucouré with a superb strike put his people back on track (3-2, 89th). Thanks to this eleventh success of the season, OL were three points ahead of PSG in the standings.

Angers traps LOSC

For its part, the LOSC hosted Angers at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium. Victorious on the forceps in Montpellier before the break (3-2), the Mastiffs wanted to continue their good dynamic against the SCO, and why not, take advantage of a Lyon misstep to take back control of Ligue 1. Christophe Galtier lined up a 4 -4-2 classic with the duo David, Yilmaz in attack. Galtier’s men were surprised at the start of the match. Following a badly negotiated cross by Djalo, the leather came back to Thomas whose enveloped strike deceived Maignan (0-1, 6th). Five minutes later, the SCO made the break thanks to Thomas who offered himself a double.

Upon receiving a corner, the central defender cut the trajectory of the head and adjusted Maignan (0-2, 11th). A catastrophic start that clearly complicated the task of LOSC. But the opponent of the Northerners was going to relaunch them in spite of himself. Capelle lost the ball near his surface, Bamba took the opportunity to serve Yilmaz who feigned the strike before deceiving Bernardoni (1-2, 42nd). Just before the hour of play, Lille grazed the correctional. Diony alerted Capelle whose strike went over (57th). LOSC pushed late in the match and Yilmaz on a free kick saw his shot hit the crossbar (78th). With this second setback of the season, the Mastiffs fell to third place.

OM returns to success

Beaten by Angers (2-1) before the winter break, Olympique de Marseille absolutely had to recover at the Orange Vélodrome against Montpellier in order not to fall too far behind in the race for the Champions League. For this resumption match, André Villas-Boas opted for a 4-2-3-1 with the only Benedetto in the lead. The start of the match turned out to be rather muddled even if very restless Thauvin tried to shake the coconut tree (16th). OM secured their first big chance of the match six minutes later. On the left, Gueye distilled a good cross which missed the inevitable in the empty goal (22nd). Two minutes later, the Argentine striker missed the boat with a head on a good center distilled by Thauvin (24th). Suffering, the MHSC reacted sporadically by Laborde whose strike was well captured by Mandanda (27th). In a strong moment, the Olympians were once again dangerous by Radonjic whose curled shot was repelled by Omlin (33 ‘). In all the good moves since the start of the match, Thauvin distilled a center in the back of the defense for Radonjic who adjusted Omlin with a head (1-0, 41st).

Two minutes later, Der Zakarian’s men narrowly missed the equalizer by Delort alone at six meters whose head could not find the frame (43rd). Against all expectations, the MHSC glued to the score after the break. Ferri threw Mollet on the right whose cross strike deceived Mandanda (1-1, 52nd). The Héraultais had a different face since the equalizer, and the deviation from Laborde on a cross from Sambia was spinning just next to it (57th). At the end of the match, André Villas-Boas’ men took the advantage. Kamara served Payet who slipped into the Hérault defense and unleashed a nice tight shot to deceive Omlin (2-1, 80th). A goal that galvanized the Marseillais. The latter took the opportunity to take off thanks to Germain who took advantage of a center from Khaoui to closely adjust Omlin (3-1, 84 ‘). With this ninth success of the season, OM remained in fifth place in Ligue 1. In the other matches of the evening, the Stade de Reims received Dijon at Auguste Delaune, the two teams parted with a goalless draw ( 0-0). Finally, Paris Saint-Germain, which was traveling to Geoffroy-Guichard to face AS Saint-Etienne there, could not do better than the draw (1-1) for the first of Mauricio Pochettino on the bench.

The results of the evening

Reims 0-0 Dijon

Olympic Marseille 3-1 Montpellier: Radonjic (41st), Payet (80th), Germain (84th) for OM; Mollet (52nd) for the MHSC

Saint-Etienne 1-1 PSG: Hamouma (19th) for ASSE; Kean (22nd) for PSG

LOSC 1-2 Angers : Yilmaz (42nd) for LOSC; Thomas (6th, 11th) for Angers

Olympique Lyonnais 3-2 RC Lens: Depay (39th, 52nd sp), Fortes (46th, csc) for Olympique Lyonnais; Sotoca (56th), Doucouré (89th) for Lens

Find the Ligue 1 ranking here.

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