Riding high on the back of their best start to a league season since 2012/13, the visitors led after just eight minutes to immediately lay bare the gulf in star quality. Gerson repaid Igor Tudor’s decision to restore him to the starting XI, instinctively tapping into the net, with Turkish international Cengiz Ünder’s strike rebounding into his path after his shot had struck the post.
Looking outclassed after more than a decade in the second tier of French football, the hosts struggled to compete with UEFA Champions League representatives Marseille approaching the half-hour mark, and Benoît Costil had to be at his best to repel four shots on target from an unrelenting Les Phocéens’ attack. By contrast, Marseille’s Pau López remained an observant spectator up to HT as his team sought to confirm their fifth successive league victory.
While there was no incoming second goal for Marseille, the hosts should have been level shortly after the hour-mark when Gauthier Hein failed to implement the finishing touches to his entwining Lionel Messi-esque run in between the visitors’ defence. But unlike the Argentine icon, he managed only to fire his effort straight at a relieved López.
Marseille showed no intent to sit on their lead in the latter minutes, and were inches away from burying Auxerre when Nuno Tavares’ venomous strike rebounded back off the post, before Costil instinctively reacted to prevent Alexis Sánchez’s rebound from nestling in the back of the net.
However, Costil couldn’t prevent a killer second goal in the 84th minute, which arrived when former Arsenal teammates Mattéo Guendouzi and Sánchez combined, allowing the latter to sublimely direct the ball into the bottom left-hand corner. Fleeting though the experience may be, Marseille will enjoy sitting top of Ligue 1, having condemned Auxerre to their first league defeat at the Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps this season.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Gerson (Olympique de Marseille)