Olympique de Marseille 2-2

 Olympique Lyonnais

 

Benoît Cheyrou gave Marseille the lead before Brandão made it 2-0 just past the half-hour mark. However, Bafétimbi Gomis pulled one back for the visitors before Souleymane Diawara's own-goal restored parity. The draw extends OM's unbeaten run to eight league games, and leaves them fifth in the table on 38 points, a point behind third-placed Lille - who have a game in hand - and Lyon in fourth.

Both sides came into this game on the back of Coupe de la Ligue victories in midweek that set up a final showdown at the Stade de France in April. Marseille made two changes from the side that beat Nice 2-1, with Mathieu Valbuena suspended after his red card in that game. Charles Kaboré took his place, while Souleymane Diawara returned to the starting line-up in place of Rod Fanni. Meanwhile, Lyon also made two changes after coming from 2-0 down to win at Lorient in extra-time. Cris was replaced by Bakary Koné in central defence, while Jimmy Briand returned at the expense of Alexandre Lacazette.

Marseille was saved from the extreme cold conditions that had blighted the weekend programme across the rest of France. It was still chilly at the Vélodrome, though, for what proved to be another thrilling Olympico.

Lyon – beaten on six of their previous eight away league outings – started brightly against an OM side who were chasing a ninth consecutive win in all competitions. Indeed, the visitors came close to taking the lead twice in the opening ten minutes. First, when OM struggled to clear a Lisandro Lopez cut-back and Gomis saw his shot from close range well saved by Steve Mandanda, and then when the home ‘keeper had to react well to cut out a Michel Bastos cross that was destined for the unmarked Lisandro.

But it was Marseille that took the lead in the 16^th minute. Kaboré picked out Brandão inside the area, and while Aly Cissokho intervened to block the Brazilian, neither he nor Samuel Umtiti were able to properly clear and Cheyrou stabbed home from close range. It  was the 25^th Ligue 1 goal of his career and his fourth in his last seven competitive games.

Buoyed by that goal, OM began to dominate, and an Alou Diarra header from a Cheyrou free-kick was saved low to his left by Hugo Lloris. But with Marseille pressing and making it difficult for Lyon to get out of their own half, a second goal was not long in coming.

There were 11 minutes of the first half still to play when OL sat off, allowing Morgan Amalfitano to advance and pick out Brandão at the back post. The Brazilian peeled away from Umtiti before beating Lloris with a neat finish, his third goal in his third start since returning to France last month.

OL do it again

Lyon now faced an enormous task to get back into the contest, but they hit back within two minutes. A corner from the left was flicked on craftily by Briand and Gomis could not miss from six yards. After that, Lyon gained the upper hand once again, and they drew level on the stroke of half-time when Cissokho’s cross from the left took a deflection off César Azpilicueta before being turned into his own net at the near post by the unfortunate Diawara. OL had come from two goals down for the second time in a week.

The half-time score of 2-2 had many fans imagining a repeat of that infamous 5-5 draw between the clubs in 2009. After all, that night at the Stade de Gerland the sides also went in tied at 2-2 after 45 minutes. However, this time the second period failed to live up to expectations.

There were no clear goal-scoring opportunities to talk of, although Gomis did shoot into the side-netting after being set up Briand. Then, at the other end, a Diarra volley from the edge of the area was turned behind by Lloris, while Briand hit the side-netting again for OL following a fine run down the right by Anthony Réveillère. Lyon did have a great chance to win at the death, but Lisandro's effort from a Kim Källström cross was saved by Mandanda, as the two great rivals settled for a draw.

Teamsheet