Lorient 2-0 Marseille: Ligue 1 Match Report

Lorient 2-0 Marseille was a goal in each half and a clean sheet against a side who had beaten them 4-0 in the reverse fixture. Lorient led 1-0 at the interval and added the second after it, which is the least dramatic possible route to one of the round's least likely results.

Marseille went in fourth on 52 points from 29 matches with a goal difference of +20, a point behind Lille and one ahead of Lyon in a European chase where four clubs were covered by three points. They had won three of five — 1-0 at Toulouse, 1-0 over Auxerre, 3-1 against Metz — but had also lost 1-2 at home to Lille and 1-2 at Monaco, both against direct rivals for the places they wanted.

Lorient were ninth on 38 with -6, comfortably clear of the bottom and twelve points off the group chasing Europe. Their five preceding matches read 1-1 at Lille, 2-1 over Lens, 0-1 at Toulouse, 1-1 with Paris FC, 0-2 at Lyon — one win, but that win had come against the side lying second, which was the fact worth carrying into this fixture.

Lorient moved to 41 points and a goal difference of -4, a second home win of the spring over a club chasing Europe. Their own position did not change and could not realistically improve, but they had now taken six points off Lens and Marseille inside a month, which is a specific and unusual thing for a ninth-placed side to have done.

Marseille stayed on 52 with the difference sliding to +18. That was three points lost in a race being decided by ones and twos: Lille and Lyon were within touching distance in both directions, and Marseille had now dropped points in two of five, both times against direct rivals. With four rounds to play, a defeat at a mid-table ground is the kind of afternoon that gets recalculated in May.

Our pre-match call was Marseille Win at 1.80. It lost, and the warning was in the record we had already read. Marseille's two defeats in five had both come away from home and both by 1-2, so a trip to a ninth-placed side was not the formality the fourteen-point gap suggested. Lorient had beaten Lens in the same recent stretch — a result that said more about their capacity in these fixtures than their league position did. We weighted the 4-0 from September heavily and it turned out to be the least relevant number available. Verdict: lost