Marseille miss chance to go second with goalless Lorient draw
Facing off after experiencing contrasting recent fortunes, both teams engaged in an early midfield dust-up low on quality but unrivalled in its passion.
Marseille, having suffered just one defeat in their last five league outings, threatened first via Cengiz Under’s powerful effort that was brilliantly parried away by Vito Mannone.
At the other end, Pau Lopez was soon forced to keep Adil Aouchiche and Romain Faivre at bay, as Lorient aimed to bounce back from a 3-1 defeat vs Lille that ended a promising three-game unbeaten run.
Historically poor against Les Olympiens at the Stade du Moustoir, with no victory in home games since April 2012, Lorient did not let past results affect the team psyche as the minutes rolled on, and the hosts continually repelled their visitors despite looking uneasy on the back foot.
As a result, visiting coach Igor Tudor cut a displeased figure as the half-time whistle sounded, with his side needing to improve much in the final third if they were to extend the longest winning streak of away league games (eight) across the top five European divisions.
While coach Tudor’s counterpart Régis Le Bris would have been contrastingly pleased at his side’s resilience, Lorient unquestionably needed more inventiveness to spring a shock.
That seemed far-fetched though, as it was the visitors working their fingers to the bone in search of a win that would draw them level on points with Lens and cut the gap to league leaders Paris Saint-Germain to six points.
However, a glimpse of hope did arrive for the hosts post the hour mark, when ex-Marseille forward Bamba Dieng directed a stray ball towards the top corner, only to see Lopez leap like a salmon to push it away.
It was all Marseille thereafter, but the Olympiens’ late charge resulted in nothing but disappointment, as they fell eight points behind PSG.
Lorient will undoubtedly come out the happier of the two sides following the toothless draw, having avoided another all-too-familiar Marseille victory in the H2H stakes.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Vincent Le Goff (Lorient)