Marseille looked active and positive in the opening minutes, with the mobility of Alexis Sánchez and Cengiz Ünder posing a threat, while the forward runs of Jonathan Clauss and Nuno Tavares kept Montpellier on their toes. Ünder came close to breaking the deadlock for the hosts inside the opening 10 minutes, but Jonas Omlin denied him with a great save from close range. Montpellier struggled to generate clear scoring chances as the game progressed, and Clauss smashed the crossbar with an outside-the-box attempt shortly before exiting the game due to injury. Olivier Dall'Oglio’s men tried to move the ball around, looking for spaces in the final third, but their efforts were unsuccessful, and the stalemate was a fair reflection on the first half’s events.
Les Olympiens didn’t take their collective foot off the gas in the second half, and while they struggled to create chances before the break, they only needed two minutes to break the deadlock after HT. Nuno Tavares opened the scoring unleashing a thunderous strike from close range following a rebound to put the visitors deservedly ahead. The game’s intensity spiked after the opener, and Montpellier could’ve quickly evened things up, but Arnaud Nordin’s attempt was cleared off the line. A huge mistake from Maxime Estève allowed Marseille to double their lead in the 61st minute, as the defender tried to clear a cross but ended up nodding the ball into the top corner of his own net.
In search of a spark, La Paillade made several substitutions, but their efforts weren’t successful, and they struggled to create any real danger. Marseille could’ve added a late third through Sánchez, but Omlin impressively thwarted the Chile international’s header. In spite of a straight red card for Tavares and a late penalty from Téji Savanier in stoppage time, Marseille closed the game out with relative ease, giving them a fourth straight win. As for Montpellier, their three-game undefeated run comes to an end, having now won just once in their last six Ligue 1 matches.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Cengiz Ünder (Olympique de Marseille)
