A visit to bottom-placed Clermont Foot offered Olympique de Marseille very little cause for concern, as the visitors rose to sixth in the table with an ultimately comfortable victory.
Marseille had been dominant throughout the first half but that had only translated to the single-goal lead, as Illiman Ndiaye made it two goals in as many weeks after having only scored once before this season.
A quiet second half soon burst into life as former Marseille player Bilal Boutobba scored his first for Clermont against the run of play. The hosts had been reduced to long balls into Shamar Nicholson and set pieces, and it was the latter that gave them life as Boutobba stole in to capitalise on Marseille’s poor defending.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang only allowed Clermont to dream for a few minutes before he returned Marseille the lead. His initial header warmed the palms of goalkeeper Mory Diaw before he pounced on the follow-up to score his fifth in his last five games.
A thunderous effort from Jonathan Clauss on his return from suspension left Marseille with some breathing space before Ismaïla Sarr and Luis Henrique combined to heap misery on Clermont to maintain interim manager Jean-Louis Gasset’s winning start. A fifth at the death by the substitute Faris Moumbagna only poured salt into the wounds of a team destined for the drop.
A counterattack for the visitors turns into a simple team goal. Sarr breaks through the Clermont defence and lays the ball off to Luis Henrique for the winger to grab his first goal in a Marseille shirt since 2021. https://t.co/drQd9gKa9N
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) March 2, 2024
The Gasset era will only last until the end of the season but it has already left an impressive mark on a Marseille team that has lurched from crisis to crisis this season, and has shown that a calm head mixed with more than a touch of experience can manage the ‘unmanageable.’
Three wins in three and the club as high as sixth (at least until RC Lens play tomorrow) only goes to illustrate the sharp contrast with former manager Gennaro Gattuso who had begun to fret about relegation after going winless in Ligue 1 in 2024.
Marseille player ratings
Pau López, 5
Quentin Merlin, 5
Chancel Mbemba, 6
Leonardo Balerdi, 7
Jonathan Clauss, 8
Pape Gueye, 5
Amine Harit, 6
Azzedine Ounahi, 5 – A quiet game for the Moroccan international. He was effective without being impressive. Industrious without being creative. Something that has become a frequent aspect of his game this season.
Illiman Ndiaye, 8 – The winger has been unlocked under Jean-Louis Gasset. The season has been less than impressive for him, but another performance for his new club shows exactly the talent that they were expecting to see this season.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 9 – Five in five for Marseille’s top goalscorer. He was a continuous threat throughout the game and helped lead the eventual rout of the bottom-placed side. And like Ndiaye, he looks to be fully unlocked under his interim manager.
Ismaïla Sarr, 8
GFFN | Nick Hartland
