Greenwood‘s wonder goal stops the ‘strike‘ in Marseille

If Roberto De Zerbi was aiming for a shock effect – he succeeded. Marseille reset itself after a turbulent week at its training center and, with a 3–2 victory over Toulouse, got back on the track of success from which it had derailed a month ago. After last week’s defeat to Reims, everything was falling apart in the Marseille camp. The players were sent into quarantine instead of being given a day off, and then De Zerbi told the team he didn’t want to coach them anymore. A crisis erupted that was barely defused by sporting director Benatia.

And in response to all that came the victory of the sky blues. An excellent second-half performance and a win that will calm the tensions within the club. Everything points to this being the final phase of the collaboration between the French club and the Italian coach, but at least for a while, smiles will return to their faces.

Then again, who knows what would have happened if Thijs Dallinga had had his night. The Toulouse forward embarrassed himself twice in the first half, with the score at 1–1. If only he had as much skill with the ball as he has speed…First, he blew past Marseille’s center-back at midfield, sprinted all the way to the goalkeeper, and instead of shooting, pushed the ball too far ahead and committed a foul on the keeper, earning himself a yellow card!? And just before the end of the first half, he had another clear chance—alone against goalkeeper Pau Lopez, with all the time in the world to decide where to shoot—and he hit it straight at him! Then again, when you look at the stats of the Gabonese player—four goals in 29 matches this season—it becomes clear why he missed those two sitters tonight.

It's boiling in Marseille: De Zerbi refused to train the players

It wasn’t Dallinga’s night, but it definitely was Rabiot’s. From a cross by the French midfielder came an own goal that gave Marseille the initial lead, and later he scored the third goal for his team, sealing the victory for the “Velodrome” side and marking the end of the strike. But the highlight of the game was certainly Mason Greenwood‘s stunner which gave Olympique the 2-1 lead. The Englishman ended a three-game scoring drought with a powerful right-footed strike (57th minute) for his 16th Ligue 1 goal of the season.

LIGUE 1 - MATCHDAY 28

Friday

Nice - Nantes 1-2 (1-2)

/Abdi 14 - Augusto 11, Abline 38/

Saturday

PSG - Angers 1-0 (0-0)

/Doue 55/

Brest - Monaco 2-1 (1-0)

/Kohn 42 og, Camara 90+4 - Zakaria 63 pen/

Olympique Lyon - Lille 2-1 (1-1)

/Lacazette 38 pen, Cherki 70 - Diakite 1/

Sunday

Lens - Saint-Etienne 1-0 (0-0)

/Koyalipou 75/

Montpellier - Le Havre 0-2 (0-2)

/Kechta 3, Toure 33/

Reims - Strasbourg 0-1 (0-1)

/Doukoure 4/

Rennes - Auxerre 0-1 (0-0)

/Jubal Junior 89/

Olympique Marseille - Toulouse 3-2 (1-1)

/Suazo 21 (og), Greenwood 57, Rabiot 64 - Magri 28, Sierro 76/